The European Union (EU) in partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced a €15 million fund (equivalent to Shs61 billion Ugandan Shillings) to support Uganda’s response to refugees.

The three-year funding will be allocated to improving water, sanitation, hygiene, healthcare, energy, education, and environmental conditions for both the refugees and the host communities.

The announcement was made during the visit of officials from the European Union and the UNHCR to the Nakivale refugee settlement in southwestern Uganda. During their visit, the delegates had the opportunity to interact with refugees in groups, discuss key challenges, and assess opportunities for further support.

Myrian Ferran, the Deputy Director General of the European Union Commission in the Department of International Partnership, stated that although funding will be given to the government of Uganda, the EU is also developing strategies to shift from providing solely humanitarian assistance to offering development assistance, which will ensure resilience and self-sustainability among the refugees through livelihoods.

Rauf Mazou, the Assistant High Commissioner for Operations at the UNHCR, explained that the funds will be used to help refugees become more self-reliant, which will reduce their dependence on humanitarian aid.

Matthew Crentsil, the UNHCR Country Representative, added that the funds will address significant gaps that have existed in refugee response in Uganda since last year. The Minister of State for Relief, Disaster Preparedness, and Refugees, Esther Anyakun, expressed her gratitude for the funding, stating that it will help resettle the large number of refugees who have entered Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo since March 2022.

She also noted that although Uganda has included refugee activities in all three National Development Plans, the government lacks a specific budget for refugees, making resources from partners like the European Union vital in supporting the refugees.

Currently, Uganda hosts over 1,542,000 refugees, primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, making it the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa. The Nakivale settlement alone houses 168,946 refugees from twelve different nationalities, including Congolese, Burundians, Rwandans, and Somalis.

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President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday 29 said that the government is committed to helping local council leaders in fighting poverty.

Museveni who is also the chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement party revealed this while speaking to NRM Village chairpersons from Kampala City at Kololo ceremonial grounds.

“Paying a salary to all LC leaders is practically impossible. What the government is going to do is to encourage you to form SACCOs so that financial assistance can be given to you and you invest in production or agriculture,” Museveni said, adding, “This SACCO idea will not cripple government operations because it is easy to manage.”

Museveni also said the government’s priority is to get the entire population out of poverty saying, “That is why all this time we have been trying out all these programs like NAADS, Microfinance, Operation Wealth Creation, Youth lively program, Emyooga, and the recently introduced PDM.”

He however, added that PDM money in Kampala will be increased since their parishes have bigger populations compared to parishes in rural areas, “We are going to study the idea of investing more money in the city since there are many people. But the principle is one, borrow and invest then return it for other people to use it,” the President said.

He advised the leaders to also consider venturing into pre-urban agriculture since there is a ready market to buy their products, especially poultry and vegetables. 

 The president also said he will work with Kampala leadership to acquire many more spaces for markets, skilling, and artisan centres.

“As a policy, the government will construct more skilling centres so that thousands of youth are taken in, trained and are equipped with skills to startup businesses,” President Museveni promised.

 The NRM Secretary-General, Richard Todwong said he was excited about the love that the local leadership of Kampala has towards their party Chairman.

“The desire they have for you is overwhelming. We might have differences and challenges as leaders, but, waking up every day to your leadership as our President gives us hope,” Todwong said.

He requested the president to kindly take the demands of his people to stand in the next election, saying the voice of the people is the voice of God. “Your current advanced age is the best time for you to lead. You make us comfortable as our president and the party leadership equally supports you,” Todwong added.

Todwong told the President that the poor performance of the NRM party in the central region has been captured in the findings that were recently captured in research that the Secretariat commissioned under the Department of Mobilization.

“Very soon, the people’s concerns from the Central and Busoga regions which require special attention will be sent to your office,” Todwong said.

“Issues to do with constrained resources; unemployment and poverty are a result of the increasing population available, especially in the urban areas like Kampala city, Wakiso, Mukono and Mpigi districts. And so, these require concerted efforts,” the head of the NRM Secretariat said, adding, “I believe you are the leader of the ordinary person. So, we request you to handle them.”

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Government of Uganda has signed the new Bilateral Labour Agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Eagle Online has reliably learnt. The agreement was signed by Betty Amongi, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

In December 2022, the government of Uganda suspended a bilateral labour export agreement with Saudi Arabia over the continuous mistreatment and torture of Ugandan migrant workers.

In 2017, the government of Uganda signed a five-year labor agreement with Saudi Arabia aimed at promoting the welfare and rights of Ugandan migrant workers.

The Observer newspaper on December 23, reported that the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Aggrey David Kibenge had issued directives to recruitment agencies and pre-departure orientation and training institutions that the agreement with Saudi Arabia had been suspended effective immediately pending re-negotiations of the agreement.

“This is therefore, to inform you that clearance and deployment of migrant workers, approval of job orders, and training of migrant workers under this agreement are suspended with immediate effect. Note, however, that this temporary suspension does not affect migrant workers whose travel had already been cleared by the ministry, prior to this date, and are in possession of signed contracts, travel tickets, and entry visas” read the letter in part.

Kibenge also said that the government is pursuing other efforts for the protection of Ugandan workers. In the pipeline is the recruitment of labour attaches to follow up on Ugandan laborers abroad, strengthen embassy offices and establish a call center in Uganda to which complaints about the welfare of Ugandan workers can be reported for action.

Remittance and Revenue

That was the only bilateral labour agreement that Uganda had. As of June, last year, there were 235 licensed private recruitment companies. Every two years, each company pays Shs2 million in license fees. Annually, Government collects $1.3 billion globally from labour export business the Middle East alone sends in $700 million.

The government collects $30 (Shs110,000) job order fees for each eternalized worker. That money is wired directly to the Uganda Revenue Authority accounts. From August 2021 to August 2022, the government collected over Shs12 billion from Job orders.

Ministry of Internal Affairs says they process 10,000 passports every month and the biggest percentage goes to individuals seeking to work in the Middle East.

According to the ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, there are over 150,000 Ugandan migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Most Ugandans are employed in the informal sector as housemaids, gardeners, cargo handlers and other jobs.

Eagle Online   has learnt that in 2021, Uganda externalized 89000 Ugandans of which 79000 went to Saudi Arabia. Of the 79000, 75000 were female. By June 2022 Uganda had externalized 50,000 nationals and a high percentage went to Saud Arabia.

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Government has made it a priority to improve the infrastructure to make it easy for tourists by setting up airfields in different tourist destinations is top on agenda.

While addressing trade representatives, MDA’s & the private sector at the Annual Trade Representative Forum (TRF) at State House Entebbe on Tuesday, organized by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) Museveni said there is need to build more Airfields near the national parks to ease movement of tourists.

“I have already told the government that we need to build more Airfields near the national parks. This is because some of the rich people don’t have time to come and land at Entebbe and drive 500 miles to Kidepo National Park. It’s only small people who can manage to do that but the rich people want to come in their private jets, land in the national park and then fly out. So, we shall have to build more hard surface airports in Kidepo, Kasese, Kihiihi, Gulu etc.,” Museveni said.

The Trade Representative Forum is an initiative by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development PACEID headed by Mr. Odrek Rwabogo that brings together all trade representatives, allowing them to network, learn and build strategies with Uganda private sector local input.

According to the Chairman of Uganda Tourism Board Mr. Daudi Migereko, prior to Covid-19, tourism was Uganda’s number one foreign exchange earner fetching the country 1.6 million dollars and that it had been predicted that Uganda would be among the 10 fastest growing fastest destinations for leisure, travel and spending between the year 2020 and 2026.

“We need to appreciate the fact that we have already lost time with everything and we must pursue everything with urgency. We’re fortunate that ever since H.E the president launched our country’s destination brand in January 2022, our tourism has been getting very good ratings to unprecedented levels. We have received awards and endorsements from international media houses,” Migereko said, calling upon the Ministry of Works to have an emergency program to develop the roads with high tourist demand.

President Museveni tipped the gathering about the many ways of making money in Uganda especially if one is focused on adding value to the existing raw materials like coffee, Milk, cotton, tea, tobacco, fruits, beef, oil seeds, cocoa, bananas, leather, cassava, sugar, etc.

On minerals, the President said that the government has already identified investors who are setting up an integrated steel industry for the inland parts of Africa instead of importing steel from other places.

“I think we now have about 4 or 5 factories coming up to produce steel from our good iron ore, phosphates for fertilizers, cement, oil and gas, lithium (we need to produce electric batteries here for electric cars), copper, gold, tin, potassium etc.,” he added, praising PACEID group for identifying the gaps in export promotion and involving the young people.

“The other day I was in Gulu district and I saw an exhibition by the young people who are engaged in processing all our precious products for the world market and we are ready to support them.

I would really like to advise anybody who wants to work in government to understand this. If you do not understand that Uganda must be business oriented, then resign.” Museveni warned, saying Africa has for long missed out on the global money market with people until recently producing only for home consumption and not for the market.

He said that the now growing population of Uganda which will be 100 million people in the next 30 years, up from the current 43 million is an opportunity for growth.

“Now with the bigger population, competition for economic space increases. You can no longer afford to be laid back because more people now need access to resources. Nobody can compete with us once the people wake up,” President Museveni noted.

The head of state gave an example of milk which until recently was not among the exports.

“My family has been keeping cows for the last 7000 years but my father who was born 1916 and died some years ago, was not involved in the money economy for milk until he was about 80 years old when we commercialized milk in 1989 for the first time. The milk sector has now been commercialized and the production has gone up to 5.3 billion liters per year,” he further said.

According to the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) Odrek Rwabwogo, the meeting focused on strengthening coordination in order to move faster.

“If we’re not coordinated in our institutions to deliver these targets, we’ll run around, our trade reps will get us orders that we won’t be able to fulfill. So, coordination is a lesson we have learnt and that’s why we have brought these trade representatives,” Rwabogo said.

On the emergency key standards Uganda exporters need to enhance production and set the stage for value addition. The Minister for Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries, Frank Tumwebaze said his ministry is developing a new approach to production, informed by the market requirements.

“As you open the market for us, just know that we’ll not only give you volumes, but we’ll also give you quality volumes. We are working out a regulatory system on foods and medicines under one framework so that regulation and fighting of fakes is made easier and when you do that, you contain disease to ensure more rewards to the farmer and eventually exports,” Minister Tumwebaze emphasized.

Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala the Minister for Works and Transport presented on how key transport infrastructure can drive Uganda’s Exports Competitiveness. He said the government is addressing the few pockets of poor road networks which are making goods expensive on the market.

“We have harmonized our laws within the country and the region to support regional trade and to ease movement of goods and services. We are also implementing key infrastructural development like the one stop border posts to facilitate easy movement of goods and services and people between countries,” Gen. Katumba said, adding that as Uganda dreams of exporting 12 million bags of coffee, the government is developing the railway system to move goods across East Africa.

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