While not so many people have lost their jobs in Uganda, their wages (unchanged despite high inflation) cannot buy them food and leave them enough money to take their children to school, clothe their families, give them medical care and pay other dues like rent.
To make matters worse, while, in some countries, the government bails out key organizations including banks, here in Africa, in Uganda in particular, our government is raising taxes. One might say it is patriotic to pay taxes. I agree, but unfortunately, when the tax payers need help, they don’t see the government as being forthcoming in its actions. Our government is almost as helpful as a parasite.
Even when it became evident that the American economy, the backbone of world financial health, had hit the iceberg, some leaders in our part of the world (read Africa) dismissed the crisis as an off coast issue. Africa is not connected to the world economic system, they argued.
No prudence!
In fact, I remember, when President Barack Obama was calling for prudence in government spending and fighting to stop bonuses being paid to bailed-out organizations, here in Uganda, the government had increased the salaries of Permanent Secretaries in government ministries and departments and doubled allowances for government officials out of the country on official business. That was a case of looking after one’s own, indeed!
But I was more angered by the inaction of our people, myself included. This is not to say that Ugandans and other Africans, whose leaders don’t care about their citizens, are passive and dumb. No. In fact, I am proud to say that our people have a great sense of resilience. However, our people take so many things for granted. I don’t know whether they realize how enormous this meltdown has been, or is going to be.
If such a thing had happened elsewhere, like in Europe or in the Asian Tigers, I am sure someone would have paid for it… either by having to make a humble apology to the citizenry or by resigning. However, when it happened in Uganda, our good people read about it in the newspapers and it was business as usual… Yes, they have been let down by governments for decades, but I never expected people to be so quiet about the issue.
Small businesses under threat
My friend, Isac Mutumba, is a young entrepreneur. He has a small paint company and is also a filmmaker. The other day, he told me business was not doing fine. Where he once sold 1,000 litres of paint, he now sells 600 litres. Since his business corresponds to the amount of ongoing construction in the country and fewer people are now investing in building and construction, his business needs prayers. He cannot predict what will happen tomorrow. This, however, does not mean he will pay less rent or lower taxes. No. In fact he has to pay more, and he told me that he feared losing his business in the meltdown. Isac is not alone. Many small businesspeople are in the same situation.
This brings me to the subject of remittances. Our economy has benefited a lot from countrymen and women living abroad. Some two years back, they sent in more money than the country made from tourism. Mind you, this was a time at which mountain gorilla-tourism was flourishing. In the past year, though, things have been different. Less money is coming in from the Diaspora. Of course this has repercussions on the businesses that are dependent on remittances.
The way forward
Before I sign off, I leave you with the message that we should not despair. The government may fail us, business may not be flourishing, the taxman could be at our doors and maybe our jobs are on the line (if they have not yet gone), but it is our responsibility to make a difference: Uganda is a food basket and we can move our economy to strength by growing food for the rest of the world. People may stop buying gold, diamond or cars, but they will always be ready to borrow money to buy food.
Picture, Crushing stones for survival, by Patrick Jaramogi
« return.