World Bank’s new report cites jobs strategy for inclusive growth in Uganda

The World Bank has recently revealed a report titled ‘Uganda: Jobs Strategy for Inclusive Growth’ in which it states the country’s (Uganda’s) economy requires to gradually create more jobs for its fast-growing youth population. These jobs will require bringing higher labour productivity in order to boost economic growth and drive transformation.

The report titled ‘Uganda: Jobs Strategy for Inclusive Growth’ identifies 10 challenges to achieving this, including slowing trends in economic growth. The report states that the labour force growth is quickening, urbanization is sluggish, as is the transition from non-wage to wage employment.

The report by World Bank revealed Uganda as the planet’s second youngest nation with a median age of just 15.9, whereas around 700,000 young people reach working age every year. This number will increase to an average of a million in the decade from 2030 to 2040, potentially exacerbating the mismatch between labour demand and supply. While Uganda’s youth are renowned for being highly enterprising, there is not enough demand for all of them to be producing for the domestic market. Fewer than 4 percent of the self-employed are employers (job creators), 52 percent are working for themselves, and 43 percent work as unpaid family workers.

On the other hand, according to data from the 2016-17 Uganda National Household Survey, two-thirds of the Ugandans remain unemployed in agriculture and almost three-quarters of young Ugandans enter the workforce on their family farm.

“Agribusiness and agro-processing can create many productive jobs in the food system, from transport, storage, and warehousing, to retail and restaurants. Blessed with good weather and soil, Uganda can be a food basket for Africa while closing the employment gap,” the World Bank Country Manager for Uganda, Tony Thompson opined.