By Isaac Nuwagaba
City ghetto youth groups, comedians and the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces soldiers’ wives have received 10,000 chicks as a way of assisting them fight unemployment and improve household income.
The handover follows a three-week training in poultry management that was facilitated by veterinary doctors from SR Afro Chicks and Breeders Ltd.
Following a deliberate three weeks of training in poultry management for ghetto youth and unemployed women in Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), as part of the poverty alleviation plan, the Government supplied 10,000 poultry chicks as capital.
Over 300 ghetto youth, women and other special interest groups received seven-day-old chicks on Friday, November 25, 2022, at Nakivubo Blue Primary School in Kampala to start poultry projects and generate income for their families.
“Ghetto youth have been running up and down in towns chasing politicians and businessmen for handouts. With poultry management skills acquired, the Government wants them to engage in agriculture to create their own incomes and food,” Minister for Kampala Capital City Authority and the Metropolitan Affairs Minsa Kabanda, who handed over the birds, said.
“Agriculture has the potential to generate income and drive economic growth in Uganda. However, the participation of youth in agriculture is limited, especially those that live in urban settings. This is the only opportunity the Government has offered to fight idleness in towns,” she added.
Kabanda appealed to the youth and women at all levels to engage in poultry, passion fruit growing, tomatoes, watermelon growing and piggery which require small pieces of land to start.
“About shillings 160.2 billion was lent to various youth groups across the country. We are now turning to train them to gain skills that they can use to work in factories or service sectors or start their own cottage businesses,” she added.
Skilling initiative
The Government started skilling the youth under the presidential skilling initiative in 2017 with various centres set up in the country.
According to Daudi Lwanga, the KCCA councillor for Kampala Central, many youth in towns engage in robberies, use narcotic drugs, participate in riots and political demonstrations, pick-pocketing, rape and defilement,” he added.
Women Fund
In 2016, President Yoweri Museveni injected 234 billion shillings into an initiative to enable women to start small businesses, which has since aided over 44,000 women in the whole country to start their own income-generating activities.
Comedian Lydia Nakito aka Maama Sam hailed President Museveni for remembering women at different levels with economic considerations aiming to empower them with supplementary income.
“I am grateful to Museveni for thinking about the ordinary Ugandan, especially women who were left behind due to poor attitudes from men in public,” Nakito said.
