The ministry of labour and gender
recently released an Employment Diagnostic Analysis report (EDA report) which
resulted from a study done to diagnose Uganda’s unemployment situation. With employment
data indicating an oversupply of labour at an annual rate of 700,000 to a static
labour market, reliance on this report will spell doom for the future of
employment in Uganda.
Børge Brende the President of the
World Economic Forum in his Global Risks Report 2019 warned that the world was
sleepwalking into a crisis? Global risks are intensifying but the collective
will to tackle them appears to be lacking. The EDA-report bears testimony to
this as it is laden with yields of cosmetic solutions to this employment issue
that is at its critical stage inching us closer each day to catastrophic political
instability.
Whereas the human capital of a
nation is its most critical asset, this unfortunately has been the most abused
and neglected resource. Our individual failures to take seriously and
proactively respond to criticisms of our quality of labour directed to us in
statements like “one Kenyan does the work
of six Ugandans” are some of the reasons why we find ourselves drowning in
this unemployment crisis.
The high pace of business
evolution is causing massive changes in the work environment at a rate faster than
our education and skill training institutions are able to cope. This evolution
has redefined value in a work place and raised the stacks of skills mis-match as
enterprise innovations and adoption of technology are rendering obsolete known management/business
styles and modes of operations hiking the rate and risks of job losses through structural
unemployment, a thing the Education and skill training institutions appear
oblivious of as they continue to supply the market with outdated labour force. This
phenomenon which is critically missing in the EDA-report requires urgent sector
analysis for quick interventions.
Another missed observation was on
the private sector particularly the informal sectors’ in-ability to absorb
excess labour. Studies have shown that our private sector has been and
continues to operate business using ancient business techniques introduced by
the Arab traders that are only effective when supplying a market with scarce
commodities that quickly sold on arrival. This practice thrived on information
gap about product sourcing and travel constrains. Take the motor spare/replacement
parts business in the kiseka market; those
who dominated the sector had the secret knowledge of where to source these
parts and could travel there. This monopoly long died when sourcing information
become readily available and travel eased. So as the market become saturated,
profits dwindled leading to cut throat zero-sum competition where firms are
operating with razor thin profit margins sometimes not sufficient to sustain
the owner there by disenabling him from employing another.
Furthermore, the quality of entrepreneurship
in the private sector is a worrying business constraint. Trader’s inability to
properly define the nature of their businesses has limited their abilities to
transit from ancient business maneuvers
to more intelligent and smarter ways of doing business which leads to win-win
economic benefit for all; seen if, firms synergized to build efficient and
profitable distribution network systems which create high value employments
with better pay within the participating entities/firms and automatically stimulating
very real demand for high value skills to design and execute strategies to
uncover better customer acquisition and customer loyalty tactics.
The private sectors can increase manufacturing and supply
jobs by connecting the economy into the global manufacturing value chain if
they identified for manufacture, categories of products with long market
viability which we have advantages in manufacturing costs, raw material quality
and supply.
The apprentice program emphasized in the EDA-Report will end
in disaster. This is because most companies that would provide apprenticeship
opportunities are still holding on to management activities that have long
ceased to add value and lag behind in automation of routine tasks. Many are not
disposed to management innovations and therefore haven’t created new employment
positions to counter effects of automation. They also exhibit low interest to invest
in re-skilling programs to ensure employee relevance in a changing work
environment.
Citing the accounting profession
as an example, while we see clients automating routine accounting tasks, there
is no evidence that accounting firms/practice are responding by changing their
product offerings or business models and also employed accountants are not seen
transitioning from routine tasks to offer high value analytics and strategic
advice. But most importantly why the apprentice program won’t deliver is
because many of our firms operate in a fraudulent non-transparent manner.
An apprentice risks being
inoculated with poor work ethics and practically trained in outdated or automatable
skills not needed anywhere further escalating this unemployment crisis.
The
writer is the C.E.O and Principal Consultant of
Omony
Consulting Co. Ltd
jwauditors@gmail.com
