President Museveni has urged Ugandan youths to focus on local opportunities, insisting that the country already has enough avenues for wealth creation and employment. He said the real challenge lies in young people failing to recognize where genuine jobs and income come from.
Museveni was speaking during a youth interaction dubbed “Jazz With Jajja”, responding to a question about what the government is doing to stop young Ugandans from going abroad for work, where many end up exploited.
“Those youths have not listened well to our advice,” Museveni said. “Jobs and wealth are found in four main sectors.”
He highlighted agriculture as the leading source of employment if managed with calculation and strategy.
The President illustrated his point with a local example of a man called Nyakaana whom he said has created both wealth and jobs for himself and other Ugandans.
“He has only 1.3 acres, but on that land he keeps dairy cows, poultry for eggs, and other enterprises. Nyakaana sells 120 trays of eggs every day. He earns about shs300,000 net profit per day — that is shs9 million per month.”
He emphasized that Nyakaana’s work benefits more than just himself.
“From what he does on one acre, he employs 15 people,” Museveni said. “One acre has created jobs for 15 Ugandans.”
“Uganda has about 40 million acres of agricultural land. Even if we use only 7 million acres and people work like Nyakaana, we would create 105 million jobs. This means we can create more jobs than the population we have. Even refugees would have jobs, and more people would come looking for work here,” Museveni said.
He stressed that wealth creation starts with individual effort. “Nyakaana first got his own wealth, and that wealth then created jobs for others.”
Museveni blamed what he described as “mental distortion” for youths’ pursuit of opportunities abroad. “Jobs are here but the problem is that many youths are disoriented by Europeans.”
The President also highlighted other sectors with massive potential. “There are jobs in manufacturing. There are jobs in services — boda bodas, ICT, transport, trade,” he said. “Jobs are here. The potential for jobs is here.”
He questioned why young people continue to leave the country. “You leave these jobs and go for slavery in Arab countries,” he said, referring to Ugandans seeking work abroad under harsh conditions.
“We have been telling you where the jobs are. If you listen and apply yourselves, you can become wealthy here at home and even employ others.”
