Mr. Godfrey Longa, Special Presidential Assistant in-charge of Political Affairs addressing leaders and graduates of Presidential Initiative for Zonal Industrial Hub. PHOTO/ATULE MOSES

Maracha District leaders have commended President Yoweri Museveni for the Presidential Initiative for Zonal Industrial Hubs describing it as a “game changer”.  A team from State House held an interface with beneficiaries as part of the follow-up on the 96 youth from the district who have graduated from the regional West Nile Youth Skilling situated in Zombo District.

During the Tuesday May 6 meeting, Hon. Stephen Obitre, Maracha District Chairperson, appreciated government for the youth skilling initiative saying that West Nile leaders at first had cast doubt about the idea of industrial hubs coming to fruition.

“This project started as a dream but we are now reaping the fruits of the dreams.  I remember when we had the first meeting in Adjumani we were like we are not going to move this far but we have been able to move this far and we have the graduates here,” he said.

Hon. Obitre suggested another regional hub be established in West Nile to cater for Maracha, Yumbe, Terego, Koboko districts and Koboko Municipality since  the hub in Zombo is far which makes it hard to make regular follow-ups on the progress of the beneficiaries.

“If decongesting Zombo by taking some to Adjumani cannot work, they should curve us and we establish another hub here where Maracha is centrally located and the land is there,” Hon. Obitre said.

He said the number of admissions be increased because majority of the youth are turned away due to the limited slots given to each district, 24 slots.

Mr. Godfrey Longa, Special Presidential Assistant in-charge of Political Affairs and also in-charge of overseeing industrial hubs across the country, expressed gratitude towards the district leaders for always seeing to it that the district sends youth to the industrial hub, but tasked them to help the youth to acquire start-up kits for them to actualize the skills they have attained.

“These young people when they leave the hub and come into the community, those who are employed are being paid peanuts yet they put in a lot of effort.  There are those who are not doing anything, because of start-up capital.

“In other districts there is what they call affirmative action, they sat and agreed on certain amount of money to support these young people, I will request that even Maracha borrows a leaf and gets some resources around so that we can support these young people,” he sounded.  

Mr. Longa revealed President Museveni has provided funds for the registration of the Saccos under the initiative for the youth to access start-up capital, the President will pronounce himself  on the amount of money each Sacco will get after the country wide registration of Saccos is complete and the Sacco leaders have undergone a 2 weeks training in Kyankwanzi District.

“The president directed that we go back and organize these young people into Saccos so that he gets money and puts into their Saccos and they can borrow money and start their own businesses. He guided that we should organize these young people into associations, their clusters after which they form apex Saccos,” he stated.

He said the district hub committees’ needs to step up in monitoring the progress of the beneficiaries observing they are only active when selecting youth to admit to the industrial hubs after that they become dormant.

“The district hub committee participates so much in recruiting but after training they abandon them, the district hub committee is supposed to follow them up, it is supposed to engage, advice, guide them on how to join the money economy, if we could do that most of these young people could be doing something,” Mr. Longa remarked.

Hajji Ramathan Walugembe, Maracha Resident District Commissioner (RDC), tasked the Commercial Services Department to support the youth in accessing Parish Development Model (PDM) through liaising with his office to help those who lack the requisite documents to access the program funds.  

 “Chairman is here, CAO is here let us put heads together so that we see how these young people can also benefit. DISO let us help these people get national IDs” he said.

On her part, Ms. Christine Bamale, Maracha District Commercial Officer, told the youth to participate in the PDM Sacco meetings for them to access the 30% threshold that is allocated to them but to also influence the running of the Saccos.

The Presidential Initiative for Zonal Industrial Hubs aims to uplift Ugandan youth by providing skill training and production centers across the country.

Each of these hubs include a four-acre model or demonstration farm, aligning with President Museveni’s vision of teaching farmers how to benefit economically from small pieces of land.

The youth are trained in areas including; tailoring and knitting, carpentry, welding, shoe making blocks, bakery, stone cutting shed, and block making, among other skills.

The Presidential Initiative, which equips more than 12,000 youths annually, includes Zombo Presidential Industrial Hub as one of 19 facilities across the country.