Labour export can spur Uganda’s economic growth

Lately, I have been profiling a few sub-sectors of our economy, which if prudently managed, can help expand Uganda’s struggling economy. One such sub-sector is the labour export business. Of recent, this sub-sector has attracted a plethora of negative media over government’s alleged failure to protect her own migrant workers and the harsh treatment of Ugandans in the host countries.
You see, Uganda may not be hugely endowed with sports talent to the level of Brazil or Nigeria and, quiet embarrassingly, we continue to attract modest revenue in tourism in spite of the country’s huge potential as Africa’s pearl.
Yet the country seems to be reaping from a mushrooming labour export trade that may have been triggered, by default, by our military expeditions. At the tail end of America’s war of shock and awe that ousted Iraqi’s Saddam Hussein, America’s security companies decided to contract affordable labour from developing countries to work as security guards for key American installations and personnel. Uganda was one of the few preferred African countries. It seems our boys and girls in Iraq did a starring job because a floodgate of offers soon followed from Somalia and as far as Afghanistan.
Our new-found reputation soon extended to the civilian wananchi and thousands of Ugandans have since left the country to work as migrant workers mainly in the Middle East. Today, it is estimated that more than one hundred thousand youth, most of whom were previously unemployed, have found employment where they earn decent wages.
Let us talk figures to drive the point home. Currently, 96 companies are licensed by the Labour ministry to recruit and deploy migrant workers abroad. One of the companies is called Middle East Consultants Limited. This company is, perhaps, the oldest and biggest labour export firm in Uganda today engaged in labour consultancy and export in the last 14 years. The company has extensive networks in the Middle East and exports labour to more than seven countries.
In the last 14 years, Middle East Consultants, alone, has created job opportunities for more than 9,000 young Ugandan workers, who are actively engaged in work across the Middle East countries. According to the company managing director, Gordon Mugyenyi, none of these workers earns less than Shs1.5m.
This has boosted Uganda’s foreign exchange because of increased flow of remittances. According to Mugyenyi, the remittances into the country currently stands at Shs5 trillion. This is an equivalent of between 2 per cent and 3 per cent of Uganda’s GDP.
Some of the migrant workers are making sound investments in businesses, hotels and tourism, agriculture and real estate. To further promote local investments, recently Middle East Consultants started a local investment incentive schemes and the company gives instant cash rewards and other forms of support to all the migrant workers, who invest their hard-earned money back home.
According to Mugyenyi, more than 90 per cent of workers are now investing their money back home mainly in real estate. Middle East recently entered into a partnership with a number of Arab countries to provide hundreds of semi-skilled and skilled youth with lucrative employment contracts. This opportunity could further help in providing employment opportunities for both the unemployed and the employed, but poorly remunerated Ugandans.
Yet in spite of the economic gains, the sector has had a fair share of challenges. For example, government has not developed a labour export policy to regulate the sector. This has led to a rise in human trafficking cases by some unscrupulous Ugandans. Unfortunately, the blame normally goes to licenced local labour export companies.
The other challenge is that although government has bilateral labour agreements with both Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the country has no such bilateral arrangements with Middle East countries such as Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and others where many Ugandan migrant workers seek employment opportunities. This leaves Ugandan workers there vulnerable.
Recently, Gender, Labour and Social Development minister launched the External Employment Management Information System (EEMIS).
The system is intended to streamline and coordinate the Labour Externalisation Programme and improve management of labour exportation in the country.
The pre-departure training programme has also helped in orienting migrant workers with the relevant skills, culture and other traditions in the host countries and this has helped to reduce cases of maltreatment.
The fledgling labour export business indicators point to immense economic potential. However, government needs to further strengthen and closely regulate the sector so that the macro benefits are in tandem with the safety and security of Ugandan migrant workers.

Mr Oramire is a lawyer and a pre-departure trainer. [email protected]