"A change in mindset could provide solution to youth unemployment"

Youth in Uganda are advised to have a positive attitude towards all kinds of work to be successful in the job sector. The director of Safeboda says this is the best way to solve youth unemployment in the country. Ricky Rappa Thomson was speaking at the launch of youth-led labour market assessment report, 2018 at Makerere University this week.

Thompson, the director and co-founder of Safeboda urged the youth to stop despising any kind of job as blue collar and to exploit their full potential through innovation and self-initiative rather than rely on relatives to find a job.

“As a senior four dropout, I left the war torn Northern Uganda and enrolled as a security guard in Jinja before resorting to riding bodaboda,” Thomson narrated. “I didn’t like the job but it is where I saw my future and potential,” he adds.

He revealed that when he lost a close friend in an accident in 2013, it was a painful experience that made him to buy a second helmet for his customers, and an idea was born. “I got someone who believed in me and we co-founded Safeboda in 2014. We started with 150 riders and today we have 6,000 riders on the road.”

Safeboda now has over 150 inhouse employees and thousands of riders. However, he complained that “as an employer who targets young people fresh from universities, it is a challenge to hire them; they could be very smart but have a very wrong attitude.”

Twine Bella, a student at Makerere University who is employed with a Non-Government Organization agreed that the youth today are unemployable because of their poor attitude. “We despise some jobs as not of class, lack basic work ethics like punctuality that is necessary in the field and imagine that a degree will be a breakthrough in life by itself without any hard work,” Twine adds.

Mutoni Fadhiilah, a student of Bachelor of Journalism and Communication fears that there are no jobs for young people in Uganda. “We spend many years studying and end up in the streets jobless, it is especially difficult for ladies as employers ask for sex before being given a job or promotion for which there is no guarantee.”

The youth-led labour market assessment report of 2018 launched at Makerere University by International Research and Exchanges highlighted ‘the disconnect between employers and the youth about the skills that are most important when seeking work.’ The report recommends young people to seek mentorship and information on the job market and grow professional networks by volunteering.

Youth unemployment in Uganda today stands at 83% yet the youth make more than 70% of the total population in Uganda as per the Uganda Bureau of Statistics 2017 survey. The National Planning Authority estimates about 400,000 graduates to be released every year in the Ugandan economy yet the school to work transition for formal employment lingers at just 10%.