President Museveni urges youth to be innovative enough to fight unemployment as Uganda marks International Youth Day 2020.
President Museveni Tuesday urged youths to practice innovativeness to be in a position to fight on the increasing levels of unemployment among the youths in the country today.
The President made the remarks while delivering a speech during the Youth Day celebrations that were held scientifically at the State House in Entebbe. He said youths more so those who have got the chance to attain education should apply their learned skills practically to better their lives.
According to Museveni, the government has played its role in creating various initiatives to give the youths loans and start-up capital to support them out of poverty, but a big number of them are reluctant to react on utilizing the opportunities.
He, in particular, pinpointed initiatives like the Youth Livelihood Fund (YLF), Women Fund, Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) and Emyooga that was recently launched, which are already in place but they are underutilised by the youths.
Museveni also urged university graduates to utilize all the available resources and raw materials in the country to come up with value addition ideas that are income-generating not only to them but the country as a whole.
“I want to tell all the university leavers to form associations most especially in manufacturing. For instance, if they engage in maize milling and make animal feeds which we are currently importing from abroad, do you know how much they would be earning?” he questioned.
The President further revealed that he has embarked on plans to start up a leather tanning factory for the youth at Kawumu in Luweero District purposefully for making shoes and other products that can be made from leather. He urged youths to start up shoemaking groups as the government is prepared to facilitate them with funds.
Museveni however, warned the youths to stay away from financially poor leaders because they have no wealth creation advice they can bring on board to see an end to youth unemployment in the country.
“I know you are youth leaders but you should be wealth creators as well. I do not like leaders who are not wealthy. What are you going to say or tell your voters when you are poor. I am a leader who knows farming and other things. But you are doing nothing and you say that you are a leader, what are youth leading?.’’
Meanwhile, the Youth Day Celebrations that were held scientifically following the coronavirus pandemic were graced under the theme: “Youth engagement for global action”.
The chairperson of National Youth Council, Ms Lilian Aber, said that the youths are among the groups that have been most hit as a result of the pandemic.
She said that because of the coronavirus, many companies decided to lay off workers as a way of cutting costs and this has since left many youths jobless and unemployed.
“When companies started laying off workers due to Covid-19 pandemic, many youths were laid off and this has increased unemployment problem across the country. There is also an increase in teenage pregnancies, abortion and forced marriages after the closure of schools,” Ms Aber said.
