Youth and business: Unforeseen prospects in Uganda's young population

By Bazil Mwotta Biddemu

Great inventions, innovations emanate on a daily. Save for having huge sums of capital investments or propagation from established structures but rather, siblings of positive mindsets that dare and risk breaking through the competitive realms of society. In a more scientific sense, alluding to the Darwinian theory of natural selection.

This may seem a more virtual rather than a realistic predisposition to the current trends of globalization and dynamically complex business world. However, I'm inclined to believe that our environment always prepares us to advance our mindsets to keep up with competition. The birth, growth and expansion of the Coca-Cola group of companies, Ford Motor, Crown beverages, among other renowned industries of the 21st century may as well grant us an opportunity to explore into the unexploited business prospects that our nation presents to us and yet we keep lamenting of the luck of those.

Agriculture and tourism arguably are Uganda's most significant financial sources, both locally and in foreign exchange, and yet these two sectors are not fully exploited to the maximum.

Agriculture, given the vast portions of fertile lands and highly favorable climatic conditions, to my understanding is an investment that if well tendered shall strike gold and oil in investments and uplift our economy into the middle income economy, increase employment prospects and further market the country into the global stage.

However, insufficient government funding and the poor attitude of today's educated youth towards agriculture have inflicted an enormous set back into the development of the sector and yet it is a forum from which magnificent innovations and inventions could sprout.

The assumption that an educated individual should only be accorded white collar jobs, and should sit in a cool air-conditioned room somewhere in the middle of an urban center perhaps is a misconception of what truly befits Uganda's population. This is not helped further by the extravagance with which we, the youth live our lives, while venturing into investments that are not worthwhile and are not sustainable for generations to follow.

Perhaps we should revisit our priorities, focus and redirect our energies into fruitful engagements if we are to remain relevant to the dynamics of a fast paced globalization concept. We have always been slapped with the accusation of plagiarism of western innovation and not being able to construct our ideas into originality. We may as well fault our upbringing; the parents and our environment for embracing a highly theoretical cosmetic education that does not suit the micro-needs of the average Ugandan, but rather does not go beyond granting prestige and a social status of a graduate, with no tangible evidence of such, of course.

This, however, does not mean we should shun other fields of engagement like humanities, natural science and engineering since they are component and supportive of my frame of discussion. I would further encourage our colleagues and other colleagues in this field to have broader perspectives of innovation, inter-profession interaction and delve more into sustainable approaches for our economy, if we are to tackle the growing trends and statistics of youth unemployment in our nation.

The writer is the Makerere University Guild President-elect