There is no official record but I estimate Kampala to have about 300,000 boda boda riders, which makes it the biggest economic activity among Ugandan youth.
It is also a fact that the idle youth who are desperate to get rich quick opt for sports betting. Unfortunately, there are hardly any success stories in the two fields, a worrying trend that I believe Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba can address as he promised during his 48th birthday recently. The growing trend of having youths in sports betting sweeps through many cities and towns across the country, leaving a small fraction of the youth that are productively engaged in meaningful employment.
It is quite reassuring that the Land Forces commander has come out to tackle the issue of idleness among youths and my most obvious observation is they need a mindset change.
Being the biggest demographic in Uganda, transforming them into productive people without leaving anyone behind is an uphill task. However, I believe it is prudent to start with what interests them and just like Gen Muhoozi noted, entertainment and sports are their niche. This, therefore, calls for more funding in those sectors because an occupied mind offers hope in times of despair.
I come from the field of football and in my experience; the sport is a fully-fledged venture that can sustain a community if run properly. For instance, I run a community team in my home village of Kifuuta, Kyotera, and on match days, about 1,000 people, mostly youth, turn out. This turns a field and surrounding areas into a business hub of sorts.
Of these are both sets of players who earn through playing, the vendors sell snacks and refreshments. Meanwhile the community leadership seizes the opportunity to sensitize the public on matters to do with health, education, development and security. From a development perspective, football creates loyalties and attachments and this starts to build brands.
Back in the day, I didn’t care much about where to fuel my car until I learnt that Hajji Omar Ahmed Mandela, my club treasurer at SC Villa, was also in the fuel business. From then on, I became a loyal supporter of his businesses and I have never been disappointed. So, football offers the rare win-win situations that purposefully impacts youth in a community and goes a long way to avert the rural-urban migration that drives youths into sports betting and boda boda business.
I have also observed that football is also an important avenue for mobilizing the youth into productive people. I know oftentimes that when one comes out to offer help to youths, they always demand for money but my experience is that that approach doesn’t often work.
That is akin to giving someone fish instead of teaching them how to fish. That’s why I believe government needs to offer incentives on sports investors, especially those in the private sector. These may be in the form of reducing taxes on sports equipment.
Famous Irish poet Oscar Wilde once noted the value of an idea has nothing whatever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.
Therefore, Gen Muhoozi’s plea for sports funding should be taken without applying a value judgment based upon notions of his military background. In other words, the more an idea is developed, the more concise becomes its expression; the more a tree is pruned, the better is the fruit.
