Uganda-Japan ICT initiative targets jobless youth

The government has asked youth to engage in ICT and innovation activities to ensure that they benefit from an initiative between Uganda and Japan.

The permanent secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, Ms Aminah Zawedde, said the government signed an MoU with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to invest in Uganda’s ICT sector as well as in areas of health, agriculture and education to ensure more job opportunities for Ugandans, particularly the youth.

“Uganda is among the countries with the youngest population in the world, while Japan has the oldest population. This means the old population needs this young population for production, through the bilateral agreement, many Ugandans will be skilled to work with Japan agencies virtually without physically leaving the country,” Ms Zawedde said during the meeting with JICA members in Nakawa, Kampala, yesterday.

She added: “There are so many jobs in Japan that Ugandans can do, but since we had no platform that can connect our youth to Japan’s job market, we have decided to partner with JICA as a supervisory agency, through the ICT Industry Promotion project. Ugandans shall be fully equipped for these jobs.”

Appeal
Ms Zawedde also urged the national ICT department to develop a software or an application that can translate the Japan language into English to ease communication between the two partnering countries.

Uganda has signed similar agreements with other countries such as Romania and the government is optimistic that a number of unemployed Ugandans will benefit from them.

“Uganda graduates at least 30,000 youth every year, which surpasses the local job market. In the government’s effort to broaden the job opportunities for our graduates, we have decided to tap into the opportunities created by the new technologies to solve this challenge,” Ms Zawedde said.

Growing ties
The chief representative of JICA in Uganda, Mr Inoue Yoichi, said: “I was privileged to participate in the Uganda-Japan Forum held in Japan held at the end of last year and officiated by the Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja. At the summit, I could witness the passion that the government of Uganda has in attracting investment.”

“Working with the Ministry of ICT, we would like to contribute towards promoting Uganda’s ICT industry, especially in human resource competitiveness. The project has already been formulated and it should commence in the first half of this year,” Mr Yoichi added.

Mr Koichiro Yamamoto, an ICT manager at JICA, told this publication that the project will commence in March.

“There is a need to support the ICT human resource and talents domestically and internationally, however, the Ministry of ICT has to polish their policy to ensure that innovations are encouraged among the youth,” Mr Yamamoto said.

Growing trend
The 2022 National Labour Survey report by Uganda Bureau of Statistics revealed that at least 41 percent of youth, who represents 9.3 million aged between 18 and 30, are not engaged in any productive activity, which has escalated dependency challenges in the country.