Government to vet enterprises over job offers for UDB funding
Minister of Finance Mr Matia Kasaija
What you need to know:
Blamed. Some enterprises have since stopped production due to financial challenges.
Bushenyi. The Minister for Finance, Planinng and Economic Development, Mr Matia Kasaija, has said the ministry will, with immediate effect, begin to vet enterprises that apply to get funding from Uganda Development Bank (UDB) on the employment opportunities they are able to offer to Ugandans.
Mr Kasaija revealed this during his two-day tour of some UDB-funded enterprises in south western Uganda at the weekend.
“I have been telling my colleagues in government and the private sector when putting up or expanding an enterprise to always think how many jobs they are creating. That’s why as a ministry, we are going to start vetting those enterprises that require funding from UDB on how many job opportunities they are going to create,” Mr Kasaija said after touring the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PBID) in Bushenyi District.
The minister said those enterprises that will be found unsatisfactory in terms of providing employment opportunities to Ugandans will not be funded.
He said the country faces a big challenge of unemployment and if this is not given attention in the next five years, Uganda is destined for difficult times, especially from the youth.
Mr Kasaija also warned managers of government enterprises that this time they either deliver or resign their positions when it’s still early.
Minister Kasaija warned: “This time is not going to be business as usual. You either deliver or you are put to where non-deliverers belong. Ugandans now need solutions to their problems but not lamenting.”
The minister, who also visited BMTS steel factory in Mbarara and Kisoro Potato Processing Industry in Kisoro, promised the managers of these enterprises of government assistance to help them achieve full capacity production.
Some of them such as BMTS have since stopped production due to financial challenges while the PBID and Kisoro Potato Processing Industry have not begun full production over similar challenges.
Mandate
UDB is a public entity mandated to finance enterprises in key growth sectors of the economy, including infrastructure development, industrialisation, agriculture, fisheries, agro-processing, natural resources extraction, hospitality and tourism, real estate development, ICT, education, health, trade and commerce.
