Mbarara locals warned on land fragmentation 

The mayor of Mbarara City Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi has challenged the local council and city leadership of Mbarara District to stand against continued land fragmentation to prevent the development of slums that have covered up most cities.

“We have opened a very important facility. As we welcome investors and developers, the challenge is now with the local council and city leadership not to allow people to divide their land into tiny plots that accelerate development of slums. They (slums) scare away investors from putting up multibillion projects in places where structures are out of order. If investors find funny toilets in a place, they will go back with their money. We need to maintain and keep the standard of 50x100 plots and 100x100 and not anything below,” Mr Kakyebezi said on Thursday during the official opening of the Formula 21 pitstop auto service and African Initiative for Relief Development (AIRD) multi-skilling center at Rwobuyenje Cell in Mbarara district in western Uganda. 

Seated on approximately one and a half acres of land, the automobile repair and maintenance service facility and multi-skilling center targets youth, women, refugees, people with disabilities, internally displaced populations (IDPs) and their host communities by equipping them with basic employable skills training.

“This center will help our young generation. Not everyone will go into business or the corporate world but such centers benefit low income earners, refugee camps and street children with practical knowledge to seek or create employment for themselves to become people of value to society,” Kakyebezi added.

AIRD chief executive officer Fikru Abebe said the organisation would carry out four to six intakes every year, each with 40 students.
“As the skilling center grows bigger in terms of facilities, the intake numbers will also continue to grow. The challenges of refugees, unemployable youths and internally displaced persons and the challenges they bring is not going away soon. Expanding our reach to the vulnerable groups wherever they are in Africa and outside Africa in terms of growth, expansion and strategic investment to address their needs and be impactful to the vulnerable will be very critical,” Mr Abebe said.
  
It should be noted that AIRD has an African home grown initiative that started in Uganda in 2006 and has grown to 12 countries. The organisation is the biggest logistics partner for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in areas of vehicle maintenance and areas of comprehensive construction and infrastructure projects such as shelters, bridges, hospitals, schools and roads, among others in 12 countries in Africa. 

It’s against this background and experience that the partnership with Corporation for Africa and Overseas (CFAO) Motors, previously known as Toyota Uganda that’s a household name in terms of vehicle maintenance and repair, which is part of skilling, was engineered.
“The whole vehicle maintenance and repair aspect as well as connecting it to the skilling center definitely helps develop skills among the target group in the community through extension of social services. People get employment and generate incomes and this leads to community transformation,” Abebe added.

Thomas Pelletier, the Managing Director of CFAO Motors said the beauty of the partnership between AIRD and Toyota Uganda is that the profit that will be generated from the service center will benefit the local communities and the country through vocational training among the target groups.    

“It is a two-fold satisfaction from us. For every Toyota brand user, when you visit the center, you will get a quality service of car repair and maintenance but also support the community and your country because there is a huge need for our services,” Mr Pelletier added.  
It should be noted that Uganda is home to 11 refugee settlements, comprising approximately 1.4 million refugees from different countries.