Why universities are vital in local economic development

Kefa Atibuni

It is evident, university education in Uganda is no longer a status symbol or a preserve of a certain class of people like it probably was years ago when Makerere University was the only university in the country.  

Currently, there are over 50 universities, nine of them public and the rest private with some going steps further to establish study centres in different places in a bid to get closer to their stakeholders.

However, apart from meeting education needs of the ever-increasing number of students, other opportunities that come along with the arrival of the ivory towers of academia to the rural communities seem to be going unharnessed.

One such opportunity is the role of the universities in spearheading the local economic development model being spearheaded by the President.

Started about three years ago, the presidential initiative to promote agro-industrialisation for local economic development (AGRILED) has a strategic direction of transforming the local government system to facilitate effective business-oriented local development with a focus on poverty reduction and sustainable wealth creation.

The initiative is a joint effort by Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), and the National Planning Authority (NPA), with whom the UN has collaborated to demonstrate the potential of a regional approach to sustainable development. Although it is still being piloted in the Rwenzori region, plans are underway to roll it out to the rest of the country.

From the AGRILED one of the underlying dimensions which absolutely confers competitive advantages on the universities, especially those located in the respective regions is the ready access to a common knowledge base that can be nurtured for desired economic development. 

For example, Muni University, the sixth public university established under the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Instrument No. 31 of 2013 was recently commended for research that has formed the basis of the West Nile Agricultural Investment Plan (ADIP).

Ministers and other government officials who attended the West Nile Development Association  annual general meeting at Muni University agreed that the ADIP has highlighted the agricultural investment potentials of the West Nile region more than ever before.

In fact, the Minister of State for Northern Uganda Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny, who attended the two-day meeting , officially commissioned the ADIP as the base information and point of reference for any future investments in the region. 

Indeed, when you talk in terms of proximity effect of knowledge transfer, studies have shown that joint production and transmission of new knowledge occurs most effectively among economic actors located close to each other; and that is the establishment ethos of most of the universities, to be closer to the people whose lives they would like to transform.   

Already in the industrial countries where the economies are becoming more knowledge-based, universities   are seen as holding the key to regional economic development and cluster formation. The universities are looked at not just as creators of knowledge, trainers of ‘young’ minds and transmitters of culture, but also as major agents of economic growth, something we could borrow from and modify to fit in the context our country.

Universities being institutions that provide new knowledge, to change paradigms, to aid society to meet new challenges in its development trajectory should therefore be brought aboard as eminent partners of the transformative Presidential Initiative. 

The window of opportunity being that the AGRILED is hinged on the National Local Economic Development (LED) policy 2014 which puts emphasis on ensuring development initiatives are spearheaded by a vibrant and competitive private sector with a clear framework for partnerships. 

Mr Kefa Atibuni is a senior communication officer at Muni University.