Museveni: What can you do with a SWASA degree, psychology and procurement?

President Museveni on Friday questioned the relevance of some university courses to Uganda’s labour market, urging young people to rethink career paths and pivot toward practical skills and job creation.

Speaking during Labour Day celebrations in Buikwe District, Museveni criticized what he described as a mismatch between academic training and economic needs.

“Now the other issue is the courses which don’t have relevance in the job market. They may be useful in giving you information on history and what’s happening in Europe but we don’t need them. In our market, we may be wanting tomatoes and you bring yams…yams are good but we don’t need them,” Museveni observed.

To stress his stance, the Ugandan leader recounted an encounter with graduates holding degrees in social work, procurement and psychology.

“Recently, I met some young people with degrees in SWASA, another one in procurement and psychology. I asked the one of psychology for what he will do with his degree. He said he can look at me and know my thinking. I asked him, how many jobs are there for that and he said he can work in prison and know which prisoner wants to escape. I asked him how many prison jobs exist and he didn’t respond. I’m happy they got some certificates and diplomas in catering and now they got jobs in no time.”

In Uganda, academic programmes denounced by Museveni typically prepare students for careers in community development, counselling and human rights work, blending theory with field training.

Museveni, whose wife Janet is the education minister, said his concerns were not new, revealing that he had warned education officials years ago about the rapid expansion of university enrolment without adequate planning.

“I had told former education minister Namirembe Bitamazire (RIP) long ago because I could see the explosion of more graduates. Many years ago when Amanya Mushega was minister of education…we’d get more than 11, 000 that would qualify to be admitted to university but government could oonly pay for1 1,000. I asked if they’ve passed and government can’t afford, why can’t they pay for themselves at university.”

“So, eventually, this helped because we could have both private and government sponsorship entering university. I saw the danger because if you have many graduates with carelessly selected courses; I ordered that the MoES should give guidelines but it wasn’t followed up well. Now that it has been raised, we’re going to follow it up.”

Museveni urged graduates in less marketable fields to retrain.

“Those who already have degrees in courses such as SWASA should consider retooling and get other trainings or qualifications that can help in job creation,” he emphasized.

Uganda must create more than 884,000 jobs annually over the next five years to tackle youth unemployment, according to planning authorities, a challenge Museveni framed as partly behavioral.

“The problem is not jobs, but people are asleep. I’ve not seen any serious farming while on my way here. We need to be serious and stop running around. Countries lke Japan have surplus jobs which you do when you go there. Japan is slightly bigger than Uganda but no agriculture and no minerals. They leverage their fishing and industrializing…and all their 127 million people have jobs and surplus work that you people go to do. Stop sleeping,” he remarked.

He pointed to agriculture as a major untapped source of employment.

“Uganda has over 40m acres of arable land. I calculated that if we can use just 7m acres of the 40m acres for commercial agriculture, more than 150m jobs would be created, far more than Uganda’s population [around 48m people].”

‘Collapse of banks and loan sharks soon’

Museveni also warned against reliance on high-interest loans.

“There’s this issue of bumping into things without planning. Minister Amongi says people start business and they collapse because people access high interest loans. Why do you do that? Be patient because there’s money in government’s UDB with interests at just about 10-12% unlike high ones of money lending institutions. We have now put about Shs500m in each parish in this ending term. If you concentrate on that and make sure it works...and fight all the people who are letting it down, we shall succeed.”

“We’re going to boost PDM with a supplementary fundng of Shs200m in each parish and it can grow to over a billion in the next 5 years. This money we’re investing in parishes and UDB will collapse money lenders and banks offering high rates. So, don’t come lamenting that, your businesses are failing due to loans.”

Museveni’s Friday remarks came just a day after he triggered mixed reactions by renewing support for preferential treatment of science professionals, including a proposal he floated this week to scrap Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax for scientists, similar to exemptions granted to the military and police,

Museveni is set to begin a new five-year term upon swearing in this month.

“I want us to do more because the scientist, even when you go by what we gave them with a tax of 30%, they go back to very little. In the new government, I want to propose some ideas which they will discuss. You Ugandans, if you want your economy to stabilize, these scientists….what if we treat them like soldiers?” he asked.

‘Social scientists must be polite’

Museveni’s growing backing for science disciplines has in recent years sparked strikes from arts lecturers and teachers in public institutions, who say “the policy creates unequal pay structures and sidelines humanities and social sciences.”

“This is what I’m going to propose and if they kill me, I will die like Jesus. I will have died for the truth. I did literature. Yes, I can quote for you Shakespeare and where he was standing and saying this…looking this way but this will not solve the problem of the ticks,” Museveni said on Thursday.

He added: “We social scientists should be a little polite and allow these scientists to build our economy and then we can come in too record history, literature and songs.”