1. Youth Unemployment in Uganda: Situation and efforts to curb the challenge
Written by Hilda Namakula1
(2016)
The term youth varies in different societies around the world. However, for statistical consistency across
regions, United Nations defines “youth” as comprising of young people aged from 15 to 24 years. It is
important to note that several UN entities, instruments and regional organizations slightly differ on the
definition of youth. For example, UN Secretariat/UNESCO/ILO Youth: 15-24; UN Habitat (Youth Fund)
Youth 15-32; UNICEF/WHO/UNFPA Adolescent: 10-19, Young People: 10-24, Youth: 15-24; and African
Union, The African Youth Charter Youth: 15-35 (United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, 2013). This is not different from country to country. For example, in some African countries, such
as Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania, the definition of youth used for policy purposes ranges from 15 years to
35 years. In Nigeria, it ranges from 12 to 30 years. South Africa’s National Youth Policy defines youth as
any person between the ages of 14 and 35 years (Curtain, 2001). This affirms that the operational
definition of youth or young people varies widely from country to country, depending on cultural,
institutional and political factors. (O’Higgins, 2001).
In the Ugandan context, the 1995 Uganda Constitution defines youth as persons aged 18-30 years.
Similarly, the policy definition according to the National Youth Policy (2001) defines youth as all young
persons – female and male aged 12 to 30 years. The Policy states that this is a
period of great emotional, physical and psychological changes that require societal support for a safe pa
ssage from adolescent to full adulthood. The 2014 National Population and Housing Census reports that
Uganda remains one of the countries in the world with the youngest population with over 78% of its
population below the age of 30. The youth (18-30 years) constitute 23% (approximately 7.8 million
people) of the country’s population (UBOS, 2016).
Youth employment in Uganda is categorized into two categories. Firstly, wage and salaried workers.
They mainly work in the formal sector with less economic risks. The second category of workers is the
self-employed and largely in the informal sector. These face relatively higher economic risks since their
remuneration is dependent on the number of units sold or services sold. Three-quarters (3/4) of the
employed youth in Uganda were self-employed (74.7%) of which 50.5% as own-account workers, 21.4%
as contributing (unpaid) family workers, 2.6% as employers and 0.2% as members of a producers’
cooperative. The remaining quarter (1/4) of the employed youth was wage and salaried workers
(24.6%). The study further indicated that 65.6% of the male youth were in paid employment and almost
64.4% of the wage workers resided in rural areas. It further reveals that only 1 in 5 young salaried
workers had a written contract whereas the remaining 78.9% were engaged on the basis of oral
contracts, affecting 84.2% wage workers in rural areas (Byamugisha et al., 2014).
The report further indicates that majority (58.4%) of the youth are largely employed in the agricultural
sector, followed by 16.6% in the trade activities. Additionally, unlike women, younger men were also
found in other labour intensive sectors such as manufacturing (6.9%), transportation (6.1%) and
construction (5.15).
Occupation also varies among the youth as evidenced by the table below
1
The author of the paper holds Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences, Makerere University. Hilda is among the 2015/16 Youth
Think Tank Researchers supported by MasterCard Foundation to undertake research on: Insights into Youth Economic
Opportunities in East Africa. She is currently based in Uganda.

2. It was further reported that 92.2% of the younger workers in Uganda are in informal employment.
Moreover, 91% of the young women had a slightly higher chance of working in the informal sector than
82% of young men. Informal sector employment among the youth was slightly higher in rural than urban
areas (Byamugisha et al., 2014). Most youth are self-employed in the informal sector mainly because the
formal sectors in both the public and private institutions can only absorb a small percentage of new job
seekers entering the labour market (Economic Policy Research Centre, 2015).
Uganda remains one of the countries with highest levels of youth unemployment in Africa and at global
level. It is important to note that Uganda has maintained a positive economic growth rate over the
years. However, the country’s pace of economic development has not matched with a growth in new
employment opportunities (Ahaibwe, Kasirye and Barungi, 2014).
The Uganda National Household Survey (2012/13) reports that the share of unemployed youth (18-30
years) among the total unemployed persons in the country was 64%. ILO data puts this figure very high
at 83%. Moreover, about 30% of the youths who are institutionally qualified in Uganda are unable to
find jobs, and the situation is even worse for semiskilled and unskilled youths. The causes of youth
unemployment are multifaceted, ranging from an inadequate investment/supply side of jobs, to
insufficient employable skills (i.e., youth possess skills that are not compatible with available jobs), lack
of access to resources like land and capital, and high rates of labour force growth. The 2015 Uganda
Human Development Report indicates that youth unemployment is higher among female (10.9%)
compared to male youth (8.1%) at national level (UNDP, 2015).
Similarly, the National Youth Policy (2001) recognized that the major causes of the youth unemployment
rate in Uganda includes lack of employable skills, lack of access to resources like land and capital, lack of
focus by the existing programmes on the informal sector and agriculture, overemphasis on experience,
lack of apprenticeship schemes, negative attitudes by the youth towards work, especially in agriculture,
lack of a comprehensive employment policy and negative cultural attitudes such as gender
discrimination and others.
However, critics have also said that young people have a negative attitude towards certain types of
work, which has contributed to their inability to find gainful employment (Uganda Labour Market
Profile, 2014). Productivity is an issue too. The labour potential is heavily underutilized and pay is low.
Underemployment indicators, such as those identified by the ILO related to time, wage and skills2
show
2
The ILO has identified several indicators of underemployment, including: 1) time-related underemployment, whereby employees work fewer
hours than previously agreed upon or than they were willing and available to work; 2) income-related underemployment, whereby employees
earn a lower income than would otherwise be the case due to specific characteristics of the employer or workplace, such as a lack of
equipment, poor training or a disorganized working arrangement; and 3) skills-related underemployment, whereby employees’ skill sets exceed
those required for the job.

3. that labour potential is heavily underutilized. Young people work in jobs that do not fully utilize their
skills and competencies, earn low pay and do not work full time as desired. The bad attitude towards
certain jobs both youth in employment and unemployment is partly responsible for the youth
unemployment in Uganda. For example, the MTN company youth segment manager, reports that on
average, about 70% of the young people the company employs to manage their call centres show
commitment to the work but 30% will care less about their output at work since this is not a permanent
placing for them in the company. The 30% will, therefore, be slow and strictly work within the specified
working hours (8:00am to 5:00pm). This is attributed to the education system which is largely
theoretical that does not prepare young people for the working environment (Edgar Batte, 2011).
The high youth unemployment rate in Uganda and Africa at large can also be attributed to the slow
economic growth and small formal labour markets, high population growth rate, lack of sufficient
experience and skills, lack of decent work, the rigid education system, rural-urban migration, limited
social networks, youth’s limited access to capital support systems et cetera. A number of analysts also
hold the opinion that the poor Government policies are partly to blame for these youth problems.
Another cause of the high unemployment rate in Uganda is the societal and cultural aspect that
generally encourages young people, particularly the girl child, to continue depending on parental
support even at an old age. The end result is that many of Uganda’s youth do not have the capacity to
think for themselves or let alone find creative ways of earning a living (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2011)
According to UNDP (undated) in some regions such as Karamoja and Northern Uganda, the youth were
affected by the conflict for period of 23 years. The experience and challenges that arose from the
breakdown of the social and economic infrastructure have had a strong bearing on their ability to access
social and economic capital to acquire skills and opportunities3
. The 2015 Uganda Human Development
Reports adds that the majority of the youth that were brought up in camps were not introduced to a
working culture at the critical development stages of their lives, most of them are outside the labour
force, neither searching for jobs nor taking initiatives to start their own businesses, with little interest in
taking up available opportunities.
In recent times the Government has come up with a number of solutions to address youth
unemployment in Uganda. This is evidenced by legal and policy measures such as the National Youth
Policy, National Employment Policy, the Skilling Uganda Strategic Plan 2012-2022 and the National
Youth Council. The Uganda Vision 2040 an overarching framework intended to transform Uganda from a
low-income to upper middle income country status strongly focuses on skills development and
employment. It highlights the inappropriate skills and skills mismatch as major factors in youth
unemployment and underemployment in Uganda. It suggests that providing youth with right skills
through trainings is a prerequisite for enhancing human capital for economic and social transformation.
In addition, the government has provided more targeted support to reduce youth unemployment in the
country. These programmes focus on – supporting income-generating activities, the provision of skills
for self-employment, the accumulation of productive assets and community based public works
programmes. The mentioned aspects are embedded in a number of programmes. For example, the
Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) which had a component on the Youth Opportunities
Programme where cash was transferred a group of youths to either pay for technical or vocational
training at a local institute, or tools and materials to practice a craft. The Karamoja Livelihoods
Programme (KALIP) managed by the Office of Prime Minister. Other programmes include the Savings
3
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/uganda/docs/Brochure%20for%20Youth%20Engagement%20and%20Employment%20(YEE)%20Converge
nce%20of%20the%20United%20Nations%20in%20Uganda.pdf

4. and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs), the Youth Livelihoods Programme (YLP) overseen by the Ministry of
Gender, Labour and Social Development, Skills development through Business, Technical and Vocational
Education and Training Programme and the Youth Venture Capital Fund (MoFPED, 2014). There is also
recently launched Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) with major focus on
unemployed women and vulnerable groups such as single young mothers, widows, disabled, women
living with HIV/AIDs and Slum dwellers. The project is going to support women in the micro, small and
medium enterprise subsector through provision of interest-free credit, technical advice for appropriate
technologies, value addition and market information.
Looking at the above programmes, it is worth noting that as the government struggles to address youth
unemployment problem, self-employment through establishment of youth funds as mentioned above
has been a key aspect. The government of Uganda has emphasized entrepreneurship within the above
mentioned programmes targeting the youth as an important avenue for job creation and economic
growth. The youth entrepreneurship programmes are guided by a number of policies across the
different sectors. Entrepreneurship is embedded within broader policies on youth, employment and
BTVET (EPRC, 2015).
Uganda was ranked as the second most entrepreneurial economy after Cameroon among the Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) participating countries with a “Total early-stage Entrepreneurial
Activity” (TEA) rate of 35.5% up from a TEA rate of 31.3% in 2010 (GEM, 2014). The report also indicates
that at least one in every three Ugandans is engaged in some form of entrepreneurial activity. Ugandan
youth (aged 18-35 years) registered a higher TEA than the general adult population. However, most of
these youth engage in entrepreneurship due to lack of jobs (necessity entrepreneurs) as opposed to
being motivated by passion for and pursuit of business (opportunity entrepreneurs).
The government of Uganda has tried to put in place a range of strategies to curb the issues of youth
unemployment in Uganda. However, these strategies (programmes and policies) have been accused of
not delivering to the expectation. For example, employment initiatives in the PRDP region have been
criticized for majorly targeting the educated. The programmes rarely address one vital aspect of
unemployment in the region, namely, mindset change (and the psycho–social aspects of a population
still reliving the devastating effects of the conflict). Also, the uniformity in the design of interventions
creates a large pool of labour skilled in only one aspect of entrepreneurship, only a few of whom the
market can accommodate (UNDP, 2015).
More so, an assessment of Skilling Uganda under the Ministry of Education and Sports by the Council for
African Policy (2013) indicated that the initiative does not produce the appropriately skilled workforce
that Uganda needs to increase incomes and employment and to compete in the East African and
international markets. The initiative is more academic and not tailored to provide local content.
Additionally, most of the BTVET service providers are private with limited supervision that affects the
quality of training provided. Low demand for vocational training among Ugandan youth is another
challenge that calls for extensive marketing and promotion to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship
right away from away stages in the education (EPRC, 2015).
Similarly, the Youth Venture Capital Fund (YVCF) under the MFPED to support the growth of viable and
sustainable SMEs developed by youth in the private sector with objective of lending venture capital debt
financing to viable projects proposed by youth and to enable them benefit from associated mentoring
services from participating banks. However, the fund encountered a number of challenges. These
included the exclusion of the youth from participating in the design and planning of the project that
were only seen as beneficiaries of the programme other than active participants which was contrary to

5. the National Youth Policy that emphasizes involvement and participation of youth in leadership and
decision making. The programme was also viewed as only targeting relatively well to do urban youth and
not being accessible to the rural and poor youth because of its credit access modalities through
commercial banks. It is also reported that the programme encountered institutional governance
bottlenecks between MoFPED and MoGLSD, ownership and a perceived conflict of interest on the part
of the service providers (banks) were being faced midway through the implementation of the
programme. This was partly because government never assessed the needs of youth before rolling out
the fund. Other challenges were limited political support from youth groups and public opposition fund
from institutions such as National Youth Council. The fund was also highly concentrated in the central
region and urban areas contrary to expectation of national reach as well as dominated by male-owned
enterprises (EPRC, 2015).
It important to note that a number of non-state actors have supported entrepreneurship programmes in
Uganda. For example, the International Labour Organization (ILO) implemented the Youth
Entrepreneurship Facility (YEF) who activities started in 2010 with aim to handover its portfolio to
national implementing agency by June 2015. In Uganda, YEF was aimed at addressing a range of the
needs and challenges of young Ugandan women and men exploring entrepreneurship as a career option
and those starting or growing their own businesses. The programme has reached over one (1) million
young people through entrepreneurship awareness and campaigns and radio drama series programme
on entrepreneurship promotion. Additionally, 38 young entrepreneurs with best green business plans
received cash awards. YEF further participated in the curriculum review of entrepreneurship education
in Uganda. This was aimed at introducing entrepreneurship as a practical life skill as well as to make the
curriculum more practical and learner-oriented. Over 1,500 teachers have been trained to deliver the
revised entrepreneurship curriculum to classroom students. Since 2012, an estimated 69,000 students in
high school from over 950 schools have been introduced to the revised curriculum (YEF, 2014)4
.
Despite the fact that the government of Uganda and Non-state actors emphasizing the need of the
youth to venture into entrepreneurship as way of curbing youth unemployment, there are a number of
challenges been encountered. For example, Namatovu et al., 2012 in their study titled “Rural Youth
Entrepreneurs in East Africa. A view from Uganda and Kenya” highlighted a range of challenges
encountered by the youth entrepreneurs in Uganda and Kenya. These included limited finances,
minimum support from government or failure to reap benefits from existing government initiated youth
programs, inappropriate education systems and inadequate skills training opportunities, poor
infrastructure, insecurity of person and property.
The same study advanced a number of remedies to address some of the above challenges. These
include, establishment of regional business registration services to ease formalization of enterprises,
institute transparent and empirical based mechanisms to ensure the proper implementation of
government programmes, empowering the district commercial office which should work closely with
sub-counties and civil society in identifying potential and viable rural youth entrepreneurs to support
and build their capacities, formulate and implement a national skills program to impart skills to the
youth, both in business and outside through establishing and empowering regional youth
entrepreneurship centers in each of the regions of the country, provision of affordable and readily
accessible business development services which have immense potential to provide the necessary
support to small businesses in the rural areas. Lastly, the youths need to be educated about their
benefits and how to access them.
4
http://www.yefafrica.org/yef-in-uganda/ accessed on July 08, 2016

6. It can be concluded that youth unemployment continues to impose social and economic costs that
impact negatively on the economic growth and development of Uganda. The government of Uganda
should adopt a coordinated and integrated strategy for rural development, growth and job creation
aimed at addressing the challenge of youth unemployment.
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