The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) through the Uganda Communications Universal Service and Access Fund (UCUSAF) is enhancing innovation and creativity in local content to spur job creation in the creative industries in response to widespread youth unemployment and demand for locally relevant digital content in line with the country’s National Development Plan III (NDP III).
This work in eastern Uganda districts of Mayuge, Bugiri, Pallisa, Busia and Soroti is being implemented by Prime Time Communications. The program, known as Skilling Youth Groups in ICTs and Multimedia is empowering youths and specifically young women with the ICT and multimedia content development skills that they need to create sustainable jobs in the creative industry and other sectors that can enable them earn significantly and fully participate in the economy while eliminating some of the barriers that deter young people including young women from reaching their full potential.
“The program is enabling young people to develop and build their capacity to adopt ICT tools and applications in multimedia content production and related business processes to enable them fully participate in the economy in Uganda and at the international level,” explains Denis Jjuuko, Team Leader at Prime Time Communications.
Kyamusana Aliyi, the Seniour Assistant CAO Mayuga handing over a certificate to a participant upon completion of the one week training
Jjuuko said that empowering young people and entrepreneurs with multimedia content production, storytelling skills and introduction to a myriad of ICT platforms that provide access to markets and networking linkages while promoting their businesses and their talents is important in the 21st century. “The program is empowering youths including young women with the 21st century skills they need to effectively use multimedia platforms and ICT applications to create and transform their businesses and promote their talents,” he added.
Hussein Muyonjo, a popular comedian, known as Swengere was the guest speaker at the training in Mayuge District where he gave the youths first hand practical experience they need to succeed. “The internet and availability of devices like smartphones has enabled us to create content that can be commercialized,” Muyonjo said. “Take the skills you are getting seriously and apply them to your situation. It could be in content creation or using platforms like LinkedIn to find work,” he said. “Don’t spread fake news though because people will eventually find out that you are not truthful and will not believe your content,” he advised.
By the end of the training in eastern Uganda, 500 youths would have received various skills including using artificial intelligence and various content platforms to find or create sustainable jobs.
Increasingly, jobs are becoming elusive especially for the young people as they are being replaced by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and other automation systems. This is largely because “many young individuals feel ill-prepared for this fast-changing technological landscape,” according to the Youth Employment in the Digital Economy Report of the United Nations. This lack of preparedness of a fast-changing world means that the youths are being left out of the digital economy which has the potential to create millions of sustainable jobs in Uganda.
Yet, according to the World Bank Digital Transformation Drives Development in Africa Report, increased accessibility of internet services particularly broadband has enhanced affordability and service quality leading to digital inclusion. In turn, this digital inclusion has led to a positive impact on creating jobs and reducing poverty.
In 2023, the World Bank flagship report found that in Nigeria and Tanzania, extreme poverty declined by about 7% after three or more years of exposure to internet coverage, while labor force participation and wage employment increased by up to 8%.
However, for the economy to thrive, there is a need for more than just infrastructure. One way of addressing this challenge is by ensuring that a sizeable skilled tech-savvy workforce exists.
Many of Uganda’s youth earnings are too low largely because of lack of employable skills
The median monthly cash earnings for people in Uganda is a paltry UGX200,000 according to the Uganda National Labour Force Survey 2021. Yet, those are the lucky ones to have a job. In 2021, 49% of the working population was in employment (10 million). For the young people, the numbers can be overwhelming. At least 41% of youth, which represents 9.3 million aged between 18 and 30 years are not engaged in any productive activity (neither in education, employment or receiving training), according to findings contained in the Uganda National Labour Force Survey 2021.
For the majority of these people, jobs will increasingly be found in self-employment. However, the education provided today is not sufficient to address this gap. Self-employment through emerging sectors such as the creative arts provide an avenue through which the youth can create sustainable jobs for themselves and others.
The youths lack the technical skills to create multimedia content, use existing highly scalable platforms and use these platforms for self-promotion of their talents and businesses, attract audiences and participate in various revenue share opportunities that these platforms provide.
