Grapevine

Effectively skill young people to foster self-employment, says UN

The United Nations (UN) has urged the Ugandan government to enhance efforts in skilling young people to address rampant youth unemployment in the country.

While the Ugandan government has implemented various skilling programs such as the presidential initiative for skilling the Girl/Boy Child project, the UN says more needs to be done to effectively tackle youth unemployment.

“For these programs to have a transformative effect, we must expand them to reach a critical mass,” UN’s resident coordinator in Uganda, Susan Namondo told Monitor on Tuesday.

She added: “Even with the commendable work being done, approximately 50 percent of the 7.7 million Ugandans living in rural areas are neither in education, training, nor employment; they are left floating.”

Preliminary 2024 census figures show that Uganda is a young country, with 50.5 percent (23.1 million) of the country’s population aged under 17.