It’s time to reopen nation’s economy

The most important thing to a Ugandan is a means to provide for themselves and their family. Nothing else comes close.

For the vast majority of Ugandans, this means doing the daily hustle. This hustle can take many forms, it can be selling avocados in the market, transporting milk to the trading centre, breaking rocks into gravel for road construction or cleaning a person’s house.

For me, it was boda boda. Allowing me to work through the day and night and earning cash every day laid the foundation of my economic empowerment.

What academics and rich people call the “informal economy” in Uganda is actually the “economy” and the foundation of our country.  Therefore, supporting our Ugandan economy this year will be even more important. The youth need to be allowed to work.

The Covid-19 pandemic presented challenges for everyone in Uganda. We did not know what it was and the government did a good job to reduce the spread of the disease. The Ministry of Health ensured the damage was very limited, particularly compared to other countries and other diseases that kill thousands and thousands of Ugandans every month such as HIV/Aids, respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and road safety accidents.

The Covid-19 lockdown was needed at first while we protected our most vulnerable, especially the elderly.
Today, however, we still have a very strong lockdown that is hurting our economy.
Boda boda has a special restriction to stop operations at 6pm, and this greatly hurts the operations, hence the incomes of motorcycle taxi riders.

Boda boda riders are still prevented from working, even as matatu (taxi) operators are allowed to operate further into the evening. This has greatly impacted boda boda earnings by as much as 50 per cent. And this puts the 1.2 million boda boda riders and their families in serious financial trouble.    

This year,  boda boda riders should be allowed to get back to their daily and normal hustle. However, this does not mean that we need the government to give us free cash transfers such as what is given to United States citizens.

What the riders need is for government to allow them to get back to work. Therefore, opening up the economy fully is what many Ugandans are asking for today.

Looking at Uganda’s neighbours,  Kenya has implemented a 10pm curfew and is pushing for full economic recovery by, for example, allowing boda boda riders in the country to operate fully.

The Kenyan government  has supported small businesses by lowering the cost of the Internet. It achieved this by  pushed Safaricom and Airtel to reduce fees on M-PESA transactions. This has greatly helped the hustle of the normal Kenyans. In Tanzania, their President largely ignored Covid-19 and let the economy pick up from  there.
While it was very risky, the impact does not seem as bad compared to the destruction of income of people seen in other African countries, putting them back years in their economic empowerment and progress.
We know Covid-19 is dangerous,  but we have shown that Ugandans can live with Covid-19 if they observe standard operating procedures, including wearing mask and washing hands, among others.

This is also in line with the Private Sector Foundation’s Tugobe Corona Wear a Mask campaign, led by chairman Elly Karuhanga.

Uganda needs to recover economically. We are seeing the first economic recession in decades with all the development we have worked on being nearly destroyed. We need to save our young people from poverty.  Therefore, we should open up the economy fully.

Mr Ricky Rapa Thomson is the co-founder & director of SafeBoda. He is also an inspirational speaker.
www.safeboda.com
[email protected]