Mukula briefs President Museveni on addressing Youth Poverty & Unemployment ,Expansion of Technical Skilling Infrastructure

FULL STATEMENT

RE: STRATEGIC BRIEF ON ADDRESSING YOUTH POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT THROUGH NATIONAL EXPANSION OF POLYTECHNIC AND TECHNICAL SKILLING INFRASTRUCTURE

Advertisements

Your Excellency,

I write with deep respect and patriotic commitment to draw your urgent attention to one of the most pressing and consequential challenges facing our nation: the growing crisis of youth poverty and unemployment.

Uganda is blessed with a youthful population—over 78% of our people are below the age of 35. This demographic structure presents an enormous opportunity for accelerated economic growth, innovation, and transformation. However, it also poses a profound risk if we do not act decisively and strategically.

The current trajectory reveals a disturbing paradox: we have a generation that is increasingly educated but economically idle; ambitious but structurally unsupported; mobile but economically excluded. University graduates, diploma holders, and school leavers are flooding an economy that is not absorbing them fast enough. The informal sector is saturated. The formal sector is limited. The result is visible in the streets: disillusionment, underemployment, rural-urban drift, and in some cases, vulnerability to social disorder.

Your Excellency, we must confront this issue not as a routine administrative matter, but as a strategic national emergency that demands a clear political economy response.

The Structural Challenge

At the heart of this crisis lies a structural mismatch: the education system is not fully aligned with the current and future demands of Uganda’s economy. We are producing graduates in fields where jobs are scarce, while key sectors of the real economy—construction, agro-processing, ICT, machine maintenance, manufacturing, and logistics—remain starved of skilled technicians and artisans.

Additionally, many young people, especially in rural and peri-urban areas, leave school without employable skills. Those who manage to enter university often exit with theoretical knowledge but no practical abilities to create, innovate, or employ themselves.

If unaddressed, this mismatch will worsen with time. Uganda’s population is projected to reach over 75 million by 2040, with an estimated 60% of that population under the age of 25. Without a structured mechanism to retool, reskill, and repurpose this workforce, we risk creating a youth bulge without opportunity—a ticking time bomb in political, social, and economic terms.

Strategic Recommendation: A National Youth Skilling Infrastructure Drive

Your Excellency, I respectfully propose a strategic and phased expansion of infrastructure for youth-focused technical and polytechnic education, covering:

Establishment of New Regional Youth Polytechnic Institutions

Located strategically in every sub-region;
Offering diploma, certificate, and modular short courses in high-demand technical and vocational skills;
Anchored on key economic activities such as manufacturing, green energy, ICT, construction, mechatronics, and agro-industrialization.

Repurposing and Retooling Existing Educational Infrastructure

Converting underutilized secondary school blocks and old institutions into vocational training centres;
Upgrading community polytechnics with modern equipment and digital technologies.

Integration with Private Sector and Industry Needs

Developing curriculums in direct partnership with employers;
Offering apprenticeships and industrial placements;
Embedding entrepreneurship training, innovation hubs, and startup incubation in each campus.

Targeting Out-of-School and University Graduates

Designing accelerated “bridging programs” for graduates who need to gain hands-on, job-ready skills;
Offering startup toolkits and subsidized inputs for successful completers.

Political Economy Justification

Relevance to the NRM Mission: This intervention reaffirms the NRM’s historic role as a liberator of Uganda’s productive potential. It connects the ordinary Ugandan to the mainstream economy through capacity, opportunity, and agency.
Alignment with National Vision and PDM: It operationalizes Uganda Vision 2040 and complements the Parish Development Model by giving youth the practical tools to participate meaningfully in the money economy.
Prevention of Social Instability: By providing a pathway for dignity, productivity, and independence, this effort will reduce urban crime, political discontent, and vulnerability to radicalization.
Creation of a Skilled Workforce: It will prepare the human capital necessary for Uganda’s transition into a lower-middle and eventually middle-income economy. Skilled workers are the engine of manufacturing, innovation, and industrial growth.
Economic Multiplier Effect: These institutions will stimulate local economies, create thousands of jobs (trainers, administrators, suppliers), and support SMEs that will emerge around the trained graduates.

Implementation Roadmap and Presidential Leadership

I propose that a Presidential Committee on Youth Skilling Infrastructure be established, comprising representatives from State House, Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Gender, UDC, and Operation Wealth Creation. This committee would:

Conduct a national audit of current TVET infrastructure;
Develop a costed implementation plan for nationwide coverage;
Mobilize funding through government budget, donor support, and PPPs;
Launch a pilot in high-pressure urban centres and economically strategic rural districts.

Your Excellency, you have always emphasized ideological clarity, capacity building, and the moral responsibility of leadership to plan for future generations. This proposal encapsulates all three. It is not a luxury. It is a necessity. By investing in youth skills and retooling infrastructure today, we build the social and economic scaffolding for Uganda’s long-term peace and prosperity.

Conclusion: A Call to Action

Let us act now with vision and courage. Let us give Uganda’s youth more than promises—let us give them the tools to shape their destiny. This proposal is not only about fighting unemployment. It is about building a productive citizenry, protecting our social cohesion, and securing the political future of the Movement and the country.

I remain at your service to support the development and execution of this initiative under your directive.

For God and My Country.

Yours respectfully,

Capt. Mike Mukula

National Vice Chairman – Eastern Region

National Resistance Movement (NRM)