The Senior Presidential Advisor to the President and Head of Diaspora Unit of State House, Mohammed Bagonza, has told returnees from Turkey President Yoweri Museveni is ready to utilize the skills they learnt abroad for the country’s socio-economic transformation.
Bagonza was on Monday meeting leaders of the returnees from Turkey at his office in Kampala when he told them the president had set up various hubs and innovation centres, where their skills can be maximally utilized.
“President Museveni has been speaking a lot about small-scale industries. You are the people he wants who can use the skills you learnt abroad to set up small factories that will produce products to substitute imports,” Bagonza said.
“If we can all support our President in his message of socio-economic transformation, this country will be more developed in the next 10 years or less,” he added.
According to Bagonza, the President is ready to listen to and support anyone who is willing to focus on skills development and setting up of manufacturing plants however small.
“You see most of these Chinese manufacturers come here with very few resources and machines. However, they start manufacturing things in small quantities which they sell and get enough capital to set up big industries. We need to learn from them,” Bagonza said.
The returnees who were led by their chairman, Yasiin Kayondo, said they had acquired various skills, including garments making, shoe making, jewelry, fish farming, and poultry among others.
“We worked in Turkish factories for a long time and we have these skills which we are willing to share with other Ugandans once we are given the opportunity,” Kayondo said.
He explained that the Turkish have the same raw materials like Uganda from which they make garments and shoes that are sold expensively on the international market.
“Uganda is rich with hides and skins, as well as cotton from which we can get material to make world-class shoes and clothes such as suits,” Kayondo said.
However, he said that although they have the skills, they lack the standard machines like those used in Turkish garment factories to make expensive products.
“If the President can get us some of those machines, we can use them together with other Ugandans to put our skills to use,” Kayondo said, adding that for now they were scattered across the country (about 300 of them).
Bagonza asked them to organize themselves according to the skills they have for proper management and deployment by the Presidential hubs managers.
Uganda currently boasts of more than 21 Presidential Hubs set up in various sub-regions of the country under the Presidential Initiative on Skilling.
So far thousands of disadvantaged youth have graduated from the hubs with different skills that have enabled them to be self-employed.