Remittances from the Ugandans working and living abroad hit the one billion mark in the financial year 2012/13.
The revelation is contained in the President’s Labour Day speech in which President Yoweri Museveni noted that the remittances had shot up by over 250 per cent to USD 1,392 million, up from US646 million in the FY2011/12. According to the President the remittances account for 4.6 percent of the GDP.
“In addition to the remittances, the migrants have acquired new skills, methods of work, and experience,” the President noted.
Over the past decade the government has recognized the contributions made by the Ugandan Diaspora, prompting the Central Bank to keep a sharp eye on the foreign remittances by monitoring inflows and issuing yearly information.
Last year the remittances amounted to US$873 million (over two trillion).
‘The United Nations estimated that 628,845 Ugandans lived and worked outside Uganda in 2013’ the President observed adding that ‘as of May 2014, 29 external employment recruitment agencies had been licensed and over 42,000 Ugandans formally recruited.’
The formal deployment, he said, was to countries that include Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia and South Sudan.
‘Labour markets abroad provide employment opportunities for Ugandans in the short run as the country develops its capacity to generate sufficient jobs for its labour force’, the President observed.
