Barbara Nambozo
THE Government is to train 2,000 youth per month in vocational and industrial skills. The move is meant to address the rampant unemployment.
Andrew Matovu, the co-ordinator of the Uganda Youth Convention, told a press conference at the Media Centre in Kampala yesterday that the initiative is part of the Job Stimulus Programme aimed at providing jobs to the youth.
‘‘The youth will be able to create employment and not stick to the traditional and endemic path of searching for jobs after school,’’ Matovu said.
Job stimulus is a five-year programme intended to promote self-employment among the youth.
The 2011- 2012 national budget allocated sh44.5b to interventions aimed at creating jobs for the youth.
Finance minister Maria Kiwanuka said such interventions would include setting up a youth entrepreneurship fund to help youth start or expand their business enterprises.
The fund also aims at empowering the youth with business skills.
Kiwanuka said youth groups will be given loans of sh100, 000 to sh5m.
Yesterday, Charlotte Ampaire, the corporate communications officer of the National Information Technology Authority, said the Government also plans to build a business process outsourcing centre to employ the youth.
She said the centre will help in sourcing for jobs from various sectors.
She noted that the centre will outsource jobs in data collection, accounting, legal services and managing a call centre.