20101010
New Vision

Kampala — THE Government, in partnership with the private sector, is to set up a call centre where jobs will be sourced out on the Internet to about 2,000 Ugandans. The centre will be ready by December this year.

The call centre is an initiative of the Uganda Youth Convention (UYC) and other Ugandan entrepreneurs to address the problem of job scarcity, especially for the youth.

Odrek Rwabwoogo, the UYC chairman, yesterday said the initiative would partly get funding from the Job Stimulus Programme in the finance ministry, while the private sector would give additional funding.

He, however, said the location of the centre was yet to be finalised.

America and Canada, Rwabwoogo said, would provide the jobs in the sectors of airlines, insurance, banking and energy.

He was hopeful that the centre would start operations on December 1. The jobs are expected to grow from 2,000 to about 6,000 by the end of 2011.

Early this year, UYC converged about 2,000 youths from all districts of Uganda and trained them on entrepreneurship and job creation. These youth are expected to be part of the first 2,000 beneficiaries in the project.

President Yoweri Museveni, speaking at a dinner on Saturday where he hosted enterpreneuers and dozens of youth at State House Entebbe, hailed the call centre initiative.

Earlier in the day, he launched a textbook on patriotism for secondary schools at the celebration of the 48th independence anniversary at Kololo Airstrip.

Museveni distributed copies of the book to selected secondary schools in Kampala to symbolise the start of the long-awaited course.

At the dinner, Museveni launched a campaign to sensitise the youth to be patriotic, peaceful and enterprising. The campaign was dubbed "I am Ugandan: Just, Productive, Orderly and Patriotic".

Citing businessman James Mulwana, whom he said depends on Ugandans to buy his products, the President said everyone has to depend on other people to prosper.

"You have to love Uganda because you need it. When Mulwana loves Uganda, he doesn't do so out of altruism because it is beautiful; he needs Uganda to be prosperous."

Museveni described those opposed to the patriotism campaign as backward and ignorant.

"When somebody walks into your shop, do you ask him his clan or tribe?" he asked. "Europeans were clever. They knew they needed each other and formed the European Union. This is what Africans need to discover."

This financial year, the Government allocated sh10b for patriotism classes in schools.

Museveni said the Government would use the over 5,600 government and privately-owned secondary schools to champion the patriotism campaign.

The dinner included live performances from artistes like GNL Zamba, Lillian Mbabazi of Blu3 and Richard Kaweesa of Band-it.

GNL's music captivated the President so much that when he came to deliver his speech, he spent about three minutes rapping in Runyankore.

The President said the youth would appreciate Uganda most if they engaged in income-generating activities.

"Look at the Somalis, they are one people - all are Muslims - but because they are still at the same level of grazing goats, they don't see the importance of Somalia. If I am grazing goats, I need only one hill; I can't see the importance of my country. But if I they become like Mulwana and produce goods like batteries, they will begin to appreciate one another," he noted.

He identified six categories of jobs where the youth can work, including agriculture, industry, public service and self-employment.

Different personalities received awards for supporting the youth convention.