Have you considered working upcountry?

By Innocent Anguyo 

MORE graduates have continued to shun job opportunities upcountry in favour of loitering in Kampala and other big urban centres in Uganda.

A brief survey done by New Vision showed that most relatively fresh graduates, especially those who graduated between 2006 and 2013, were not willing to work upcountry.

Suzan Mbabazi, a graduate of civil engineering, has declined several offers by her home district to employ her as a field supervisor on grounds that the district lacks the facilities she requires.

“I want to watch TV most of the time and live in a house that has a water heater. I also like partying in nice clubs, which only exist in Kampala and a few urban centres,” Mbabazi says.

However, having graduated in January 2011, she is yet to find a job in Kampala whose supply of engineers literarily overwhelms demand. Therefore, Mbabazi’s life in the city has not been as rosy as she expected.

She rents a mud-and-wattle house without sanitary facilities in Katanga slum at sh40,000, buys water at sh200 a jerrycan, eats one meal a day and works as a sales person for a plastics distribution company, which pays her sh120,000 per month.

Scores of fresh graduates who dare to brave the competitive job market in the urban centres, especially in Kampala, despite their lack of work experience, share Mbabazi’s plight.

They choose to suffer the poor job and living conditions in the city, not because they cannot lead better lives upcountry, but because of their desire to live in luxury at a time when they cannot afford it, according to experts.

Annet Asio, a lecturer of human resource management and office administration at Makerere University Business School (Arua branch), says working upcountry could be more convenient and rewarding than working in the city, especially now when the economy is strained.

Low cost of living

Asio notes that the cost of living upcountry is three times smaller than that in the city. 

“The cost of food, transport and housing in the city is so high that at the end of the day, you may end up using all your money, yet you could save a lot while upcountry since food and housing are cheaper,” Asio observes.

She adds that upcountry, despite the absence of piped water in some areas, there is always clean, free spring and borehole water, unlike in the city where you have to buy literally everything, including water.

She says while renting a three-room self-contained house in Kampala costs about sh450,000, in most upcountry areas it is about sh150,000.

Investment opportunities

Working upcountry also enables one to engage in other income generating activities such as farming, which is a lucrative business, notes Asio. 

She says the cost of purchasing and renting farmland in the rural areas is cheaper, that fresh graduates can invest their savings in farming and make bumper profits.

“Labour in the rural areas is also cheap and, therefore, your cost of production, especially in farming will be low,” Asio says.

“There are also few investors in the rural areas and this could give you the opportunity to start less costly business ventures such as retail shops and mobile money services to supplement your pay cheque,” she advises.

The environment

The quality of the environment in the rural areas, Asio says, is good given that there is little or even no invasion by industrialisation and urbanisation like it is in the city.

“The air is fresh with the sweet fragrance of flowers. There is less dust and toxic fumes. Sightseeing and picnicking are also some of the interesting pass times abundant in the rural areas,” Asio adds.

Unlike in the town where the poor have to live in deplorable conditions in slums and other congested neighbourhoods, Asio says the land upcountry is expansive enough to have spacious houses and compounds.

“You can have a garden, a big house and enough room to play or do fitness drills. This is not an extraordinary thing in the village, but it definitely is a luxury reserved for the rich in urban areas,” Asio notes.