Uganda is richer than United Arab Emirates!

By Yahya Kasujja

I was shocked to hear that President Museveni first visited Dubai only recently. Questions ran into my mind, as why it took him too long to visit the place that was a big chunk of sand less than 30years ago but now one of the leaders in trade, tourism, real estate and construction.

Personally, when I hear that a former colleague is living a better life than me, I immediately look for his number, not to ask for a fish but the knowledge on how to fish since that is more beneficial to me and less costly to him.

Most people believe that UAE is what it is because of oil, no wonder we were so excited about the discovery of oil but we forget that countries like Nigeria and Libya had far more oil than UAE and yet they are not anywhere close in terms of development.

It will not surprise many to learn that in less than 10 years, UAE will have no oil but they will be richer than before all because they have developed tourism, real estate and trade and it is trade not industrialisation!

Now let us compare, starting with tourism; before I made my first trip to Dubai, I always saw American musicians showing off how they visited UAE, talking with pride about this beautiful country so unlike most Ugandans, I dreamt more of going to Dubai than USA.

Thank God, I made my first trip in 2013 and the following morning I went straight to a tour company. When I looked at what they had to offer, I realised it was all about looking at buildings, boat cruise and desert tour. Trust me I was shocked but all the same I tried it anyway.

On the boat cruise, I met a lady who happened to be a banker from Germany, you could clearly see it on her face that the sun had affected her skin, when I tried to ask about it she was like; “I don’t intend to do anything about it, I want all my friends to know I was touring Dubai!”

I couldn’t stop imagining how this lady would have felt if she had travelled to Uganda, seen the source of the Nile, chased gorillas, lions and giraffes, the waterfalls, birds, the green and to seal it off with lying at shores of lake victory enjoying the nice weather!

Uganda should stop focusing on industrialisation, but concentrate on using land productively. You can buy a new phone at sh20,000 but nowadays the same amount cannot buy a bunch of banana that will feed a family of six people for only one week so why struggle to build a manufacturing plant when you can invest that money in agriculture.

And am not advising you to grow pine which will take you 20years to harvest, you can grow jackfruit’s, mangoes or avocado which requires less effort but can get you the same returns in less than half the time it takes to harvest pine.

Let us start thinking, learn from other’s success and stop cramming!

The writer is Ugandan base in United Arab Emirates