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Experts call for competitiveness

As workers commemorate World Labour Day, the competence and productivity of people employed in the various sectors remain a growing concern in Uganda. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the Ugandan labourforce is estimated at 9.8m people, of who 53 per cent are females.

It also indicates that about 75 per cent of the labourforce is below 40 years and yet 30 per cent of the total labourforce is illiterate. An estimated 77 per cent workers have education below secondary school level.

This means that the majority of the individuals who enter the labour market do not have required skills leave alone being aware of the labour laws. Mr Bernard Mujuni, a legal specialist, calls for robust labour administration and competitiveness involving strengthening administrative systems, and personnel to promote labour standards. He says this will promote increased productivity.

Mr Mujuuni says labour productivity and competitiveness should match the infrastructural development. “There should be a deliberate effort to skill and re-orient the critical human resource necessary for delivering the desired industrial growth,” he says.

Skilling Uganda
As a way of enhancing the competiveness and productivity of the labourforce, the government has come up with a new 10-year programme dubbed “Skilling Uganda”. To Ms Jesca Alupo, the Education and Sports minister under whose docket the programme falls, the initiative should be supported by all Ugandans as learners will be trained in competencies and competiveness as opposed to theory. In addition to students, she says the initiative also targets people who are already working and in self-employment.

Apprenticeship
Dr Gideon Badagawa, the executive director of Private Sector Foundation-Uganda, says the private sector is working out modalities together with institutions of higher learning to provide industrial training and apprenticeship opportunities.
“To that effect, we have presented a proposal to the government to incentivise the companies and organisations that take on students for industrial training and apprenticeship with tax exemptions,” says Dr Badagawa.

He stresses that the overall objective of this all-round training programme is to give confidence to the employers that the kind of people they are going to employ will not jeopardise their operations.

“Some companies are skeptical about employing young and inexperienced people because they think they will burn down their factories due to poor handling of machines. So, we want to expose these young people to the real practical world,” he says.

In the region, studies show that Kenya’s labourforce is the most skilled and competent, a reason why Kenyan nationals are aggressively taking on jobs that should be done by Ugandans mainly in the areas of tourism and hospitality, IT, manufacturing, among others.

What the government says
Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana says the government is doing everything in its mandate to enhance the competence of the labourforce through collaborative efforts with other government departments and stakeholders.

“Of course this is the major outcry everywhere, with employers and regional markets saying our people do not have employable skills let alone the right work ethics and attitude,” he says.

Youth unemployment rate continues to soar

For Mr Lubowa Musoke, a metal workshop entrepreneur in Rubaga, Kampala, attaining vocational skills is but not good enough, especially to the young people who do not have capital to start their own enterprises.

He thus advises the government to increase its funding to vocational income generating projects if the problem of unemployment is to be reduced. “Since there are fewer government jobs, it is important that people seek self-employment but this is hindered by lack of start-up capital,” he says.

According to Mr Musoke, the government should ensure that the young entrepreneurs are availed with capital in form of soft loans or better yet, exempt small scale industries from paying tax.

Projects such as carpentry, and metal welding can be rewarding to an extent that a person may not even think of looking for formal employment.
“For example, I started my business four years ago with only Shs7m but it has grown to over Shs30 million and I am able to pay fees for my children and take care of my family,” Mr Musoke says.

Response
The government has initiated several youth focused projects to promote entrepreneurship skills. For example, under the youth capital venture fund, Shs25 billion was provided in the financial year (2012/13) as start-up capital for the youth and medium enterprises.
In 2010, the government launched the non-formal training programme under the Ministry of Education and Sports, which saw a significant number of Ugandans acquiring non-formal skills which they can utilise to increase production.

New programme
In 2012, the government launched a new education programme named, “Skilling Uganda” meant to introduce short courses for school leavers at primary seven, senior four and six, school dropouts and graduates.

It is aimed at giving learners an opportunity to go through a parallel education programme to that of formal education.

Is your company doing enough to promote its brand?

A brand is a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of all intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.

Branding is not about getting the target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting the prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.

“To succeed in branding, one must understand the needs and wants of his/her customers and prospects. This can be done by integrating brand strategies through the company at every point of public contact,” Mr Jawad Jafer, Superbrands East Africa project director says.
According to him, a brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which can be influenced while others cannot be influenced.

“Great brands have something beyond primacy of product or service, high levels of awareness, satisfaction and ubiquitous distribution. They stand for something in the minds of consumers but above all these, they have established a bond primarily emotional between themselves and consumers,” Mr Jafer says.

For example in Uganda, some of the big brands include: MTN, Nokia, Coca-Cola, Business Power and Colgate among others; this is according to a survey carried out by Superbrands recently.
Mr Jafer advises that a strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. He says that it’s important for a company to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building a brand. After all the brand is the source of promise to the consumer and it’s also a foundational piece in marketing.

When creating a brand strategy for a product or service, it is important to perform a careful analysis to determine principal barriers that you may come in contact with. These barriers are also known as market conditions that can keep your product or service from achieving success.
Mr Alex Wanjohi, the managing director of Chartis Uganda, says branding is also a form of lifestyle, because the consumers identify with your organisation for the reason that your services also happen to be their way of life.

He says that in most cases, it’s not about the name but the relationship between the organisation and its customers. “We recently rebranded from AIG insurance to Chartis but this has not affected our business instead it has had a positive impact because of the hype it generated. Besides our customers have continued to identify with our services which have become a way of life for them,” Mr Wanjohi explains.

Mr Daniel Ekisa, the operations manager of Basic Investments Limited, a marketing consultancy firm on Kampala Road says: “By branding, we add value to our clients by providing real clarity of thinking around their target and what their go-to-market proposition needs to look like to successfully compete,” he explains.

How to come up with a branding name, Mr Ekesa says that since a brand sells a product, it’s always advisable to sit on a round table with a client and exchange ideas.

Turkish Airlines to Launch in June

Turkish Airlines, Europe’s fourth largest passenger carrier is expanding its global presence as it focuses on launching a new route to Entebbe next month.

The over 77-year old air transport carrier, will operate both passenger and cargo business from Entebbe to Istanbul, New York, Chicago and the rest of Europe.

In an interview with Daily Monitor, lsat week Mr Orhan Subay, the Uganda Turkish Airline director said the move aims to improve working relations between the two countries which will eventually spur business, education and cultural growth.

He said: “We are looking at a wider perspective where we shall both benefit. The Ugandan community will trade with Turkey because of quality products and the Turkish will tour Uganda’s beautiful sceneries and boost tourism.

The Airline will officially launch on the Uganda route in June at Entebbe international airport.

The route will fly the 8030s planes, which have a capacity of between 260 and 270 passengers and RCG cargo planes.

The launch of the Turkish airline Entebbe route will bring the number of Airlines in Uganda to over 15 including Air Uganda, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Dairo Air Services, Eagle Air, Egypt Air, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Fly 540, Kenya Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Precision Air, Rwanda Air and South African Airways among others.

Mr Subay, however, said the low flight charges will give Turkish Airlines a competitive edge in the growing Uganda airline industry.
Launch charges that will run from June 14 to August 14, are about Shs0.55m for a return ticket from Entebbe to Istanbul inclusive of taxes and about Shs0.54m for a return ticket from Istanbul to Entebbe.