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Uganda’s Youth Demand Jobs

Uganda’s Youth Demand Jobs

From allAfrica

With Uganda’s unemployment rate at near 83 percent, the government is being challenged by a group of former students who have formed the National Association of the Unemployed. Their demands are for the government to sponsor and create jobs for Uganda’s large youth population.

Uganda has one of the highest rates of unemployment on the African continent. It also has one of the largest populations of people under 30.

This combination has created a contentious climate from which the National Association of the Unemployed has emerged. The group is asking the government for widespread reforms to ease unemployment burdens.

Demands made by the NOU include the creation of a ministry of unemployment, parliamentary representation, equal opportunity for job candidates and the creation of job centers.

NOU has threatened to boycott the 2016 elections, if the government does not act on their program.

“We want to bring all the unemployed Ugandans under one organization, under one forum, and we want to tell them and prove that even the oppressed majority have the power to change things,” explained Doreen Nyanjura, communications director for NOU. “You know things must be right in this country… but we shall do our best to make sure that, you know, the problem of unemployment is solved once and for all. Failure to do that we shall mobilize all these unemployed Ugandans not to participate in the 2016 elections.”

 

Read more at allAfrica