Uganda needs to market herself
Apr 06, 2010
OUR strengths as a country lie in our abundant natural resources, our great weather, and our friendly people.
By Blessing Nshaho
OUR strengths as a country lie in our abundant natural resources, our great weather, and our friendly people.
I have travelled across the world but it is difficult to find a country as blessed as ours. Winston Churchill dubbed Uganda the Pearl of Africa; the best country on the most naturally endowed and positioned continent in the world. But we have not taken advantage of our resources.
The four areas that we should focus on to ensure that our economy grows to its full potential are agriculture, tourism, oil and gas, and information technology.
Agriculture is the most important sector in Uganda, employing over 80% of our workforce. The US, the UK and other European countries,which represent the largest markets in the world, have an ever increasing demand for organic agricultural products, which can cheaply be grown here.
While Japan has utilised its entire arable land mass and is one of the leaders in global economy, Uganda with 22% of arable land has not done the same. Most of our arable land is used for subsistence farming or not utilised.
There is need for the amalgamation of our farming efforts through the creation of national cooperatives managed by the private sector to encourage the transition from subsistence farming to commercial, aimed at crops that have high demand and retail prices in the supermarkets in the West.
Due to high levels of stress in western economies, there is high demand for tourist destinations that provide their working residents opportunity for annual holidays in countries offering world class services, tourist attractions, and infrastructure that allows them to freely move and communicate with family and friends back home. Uganda has not done well in this area.
The World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 ranks Uganda 111 out of 133 countries on the competitive index.
We lag behind Mauritius ranked 40, South Africa (61), Egypt (64), Kenya (97) and Tanzania (98). We have not sold ourselves as a top tourist destination and the infrastructure is inadequate to support growth in this area.
A lot needs to be done by the tourism ministry and the Uganda Tourism Board to enhance tourism attractiveness. The oil and gas industry provides us with a great avenue to raise our GDP but it is important that we add value within Uganda and not sell only crude oil to the West.
The Government should also utilise this resource internally to reduce pump prices and the cost of transport. This will help lower the cost of living and inflation. Our focus should not only be on the external market. Charity begins at home.
Information technology is the future of the world. India has become one of the most attractive emerging markets in the world mainly due to its significant investment in ICT.
Global multinational corporations are outsourcing their business process functions to Indian firms due to the low cost of labour and living costs and the well developed ICT infrastructure at a national level.
With Uganda having similar characteristics of low labour and living costs, it is important that we study the Indian design and determine how best we can use the fibre optic cable with faster connectivity speeds to the internet backbone to develop our ability to become the global outsourcing nation of choice.
This calls for the development of our human resources in such a manner that we can have business process outsourcing as a key component of our country’s profile. It is important that Uganda continuously re-evaluates its education system to gear towards developing the above four areas to ensure economic success.
The writer is the executive director Ernst & Young Advisory Services EastAfrica.Email:Blessing.Nshaho@ug.ey.com
OUR strengths as a country lie in our abundant natural resources, our great weather, and our friendly people.
I have travelled across the world but it is difficult to find a country as blessed as ours. Winston Churchill dubbed Uganda the Pearl of Africa; the best country on the most naturally endowed and positioned continent in the world. But we have not taken advantage of our resources.
The four areas that we should focus on to ensure that our economy grows to its full potential are agriculture, tourism, oil and gas, and information technology.
Agriculture is the most important sector in Uganda, employing over 80% of our workforce. The US, the UK and other European countries,which represent the largest markets in the world, have an ever increasing demand for organic agricultural products, which can cheaply be grown here.
While Japan has utilised its entire arable land mass and is one of the leaders in global economy, Uganda with 22% of arable land has not done the same. Most of our arable land is used for subsistence farming or not utilised.
There is need for the amalgamation of our farming efforts through the creation of national cooperatives managed by the private sector to encourage the transition from subsistence farming to commercial, aimed at crops that have high demand and retail prices in the supermarkets in the West.
Due to high levels of stress in western economies, there is high demand for tourist destinations that provide their working residents opportunity for annual holidays in countries offering world class services, tourist attractions, and infrastructure that allows them to freely move and communicate with family and friends back home. Uganda has not done well in this area.
The World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2009 ranks Uganda 111 out of 133 countries on the competitive index.
We lag behind Mauritius ranked 40, South Africa (61), Egypt (64), Kenya (97) and Tanzania (98). We have not sold ourselves as a top tourist destination and the infrastructure is inadequate to support growth in this area.
A lot needs to be done by the tourism ministry and the Uganda Tourism Board to enhance tourism attractiveness. The oil and gas industry provides us with a great avenue to raise our GDP but it is important that we add value within Uganda and not sell only crude oil to the West.
The Government should also utilise this resource internally to reduce pump prices and the cost of transport. This will help lower the cost of living and inflation. Our focus should not only be on the external market. Charity begins at home.
Information technology is the future of the world. India has become one of the most attractive emerging markets in the world mainly due to its significant investment in ICT.
Global multinational corporations are outsourcing their business process functions to Indian firms due to the low cost of labour and living costs and the well developed ICT infrastructure at a national level.
With Uganda having similar characteristics of low labour and living costs, it is important that we study the Indian design and determine how best we can use the fibre optic cable with faster connectivity speeds to the internet backbone to develop our ability to become the global outsourcing nation of choice.
This calls for the development of our human resources in such a manner that we can have business process outsourcing as a key component of our country’s profile. It is important that Uganda continuously re-evaluates its education system to gear towards developing the above four areas to ensure economic success.
The writer is the executive director Ernst & Young Advisory Services EastAfrica.Email:Blessing.Nshaho@ug.ey.com