Promoting sports is key to stopping unemployment

By John Vianney Ahumuza

Sports continue to be the untapped employment mine for Ugandan population in spite of the high unemployment figures standing at about 83.2%.

These figures continue to be a national threat for the ever increasing redundant young population loaming on streets in almost all urban areas.

Although the Government has made efforts to reduce unemployment through encouraging industrialisation and massive privatisation, the working conditions of the citizens in absence of a minimum wage have remained a thorn in the neck of able bodied youthful patriotic nationals.

Similarly, work safety measures remain wanting in many industries in spite of heavy production output figures. Amidst this dilemma, the Government can easily avert the unemployment challenge by promoting recreation and sports. Gaging from the way our youth crowd betting centres and outlets that air international matches like premier league games , one can ably predict that majority of our youth are simply sitting on talents for lack of avenues to vent out this potential for greater opportunities.

It is common knowledge that our country needs adequate stadia, accommodation facilities like dormitories for sports academies evenly distributed country wide to aid. Take for instance the headquarters of Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA) located at Wakaliga in Kampala. These offices are squeezed with almost no clearly planned sports facilities like dormitories for sports participants!

In terms of Kampala and Wakiso as a leading city and town respectively, huge chunks of land lie in the outskirts of these urban areas that would be bought and planned well as sports centres for building talents. These facilities once completed would attract scouts from all over the globe to open up greener pastures for our talented citizens. In the ministry circles, it appears as if Uganda has a vibrant ministry of education which has become silent on its second role namely sports!

I would, therefore, like to recommend that:

•    The Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology should be allocated money in its budget to buy land for the construction of complex sports facilities at least in every district. Private investors in industry have ably done this and the ministry could equally do the same.
•    There must be increased coordination and collaboration between ministries to make this vision a reality. For instance, the ministry could liaise with that of Works and Transport after acquiring land to be aided in grading such areas. This would be cost effective.

If this idea would be pursued, high unemployment figures would be minimised greatly and sports would aid agriculture, tourism and other sectors in bringing imaginable incomes in all homes. It is not true in my opinion that our population is lazy and sleepy. Give our patriotic youth avenues for skill development and eliminating redundancy and poverty will be history in our motherland.

The writer is a lecturer at Uganda Christian University Mukono