Can Uganda Survive the Global Economic Meltdown?

One of my favourite columnists is Sunny Bindra in the Sunday Nation. He offers simple, but damn practical insight about all things commercial. In his latest column he dissects the current turmoil in the US banking sector and its impact on the Kenyan economy.

Why it caught my particular attention was the fact that I read last week that Dr. Maggie Kigozi, head of the Uganda Investment authority, declared that the country would not be affected by the economic crisis.

How naïve indeed. Sunny Bindra did point a couple of insights, that show how inter connected our economies are, even in deepest ‘darkest’ Africa.

Our search for foreign direct investment (FDI) is likely to hit a brick wall. All global multinationals are tightening their belts and aiming to maintain cash flows. So investing in a housing project in ntinda is not likely to show up on their radar screen.

Uganda relies heavily on donor aid to support its capital and recurrent budget spending. 50% or there abouts. With the US government pouring 700 billion dollars into the black hole that its financial system has become and the EU doing the same with 30 billion dollars, there can’t be much left over for their international development commitments. So we should expect an aid cut and with it, renovation of your local district hospital will be delayed and the micro finance loan facility will evaporate…end of ‘Entandikwa’ etc.

Tourism has been a growing component of GDP. But foreign travellers are very sensitive to changes in the global economy. They tighten their spending and the easiest cancellation to make is a holiday in a far away exotic land, considering that they are not sure if they will still have a job next week and the current oil price has made long haul flights a luxury, again!

And we cant't export anything if no one is buying our fish, simsim, bananas........crude oil (I guess not yet).

All is not necessarily lost, especially if Uganda is a well managed economy (Choke!!!). The NSSF land scandal is still fresh bile in the public’s mouth and it keeps getting worse. Last sunday's East African newspaper said that there is a massive loss at the East African Development Bank (8.9 million dollars) this financial year and attributes it to loans made to well connected NRM business insiders, that subsequently are poorly performing ( Of course they are).

We need to brace ourselves for tough times and don’t expect much help from Big brother, he cant even see it coming.

Hands Off The mini Skirt!

I try to keep off frivolous chat, but this thing about banning mini skirts has got me irritated. I had to watch the Minister of ethics and integrity, Mr. Nsaba Buturo, lecture the nation about how we are conservative and thus not used to seeing women ‘almost naked’. Apparently its not our culture.

Well lets explore a little:

Since he decided to let loose the tradition genie, lets start there. Isn’t it true that most young girls in African tribes wore short skirts made of animal skins and bark cloth. The skirts only getting longer when the girls got married…..not before!

Secondly, can you just imagine a prosecutor standing before a judge , demanding that young Nakawunde needs to be jailed because her hot pants caused an accident on busy William street. Its so ridiculous it buggers belief. How idle are we?????

And for Nsaba Buturo to claim the moral high ground as the guardian of what is Ugandan is laughable. Uganda is a nation with thousands of people in north who have never been back to their homes in decades, a raging hepatitis E epidemic, a crumbling education system, ministers who steal money from aids patients and more ministers who take advantage of worker’s NSSF savings.

Instead of taking the high ground on this, the Mr. Buturo decides it is mini skirts that are a priority. Perhaps it’s the news value……he is a politician after all. Or is it a distraction…………….. Yes, I do believe in conspiracy theories.

My two cents would be:
If you have a body like Naomi Campbell then please set the streets on fire, stop traffic if you have too!

If you don’t have a body like Ms. Campbell, and instead have a body mass index greater than 30, then set us free and cover it up. There nothing worse than an out of shape woman who looks like she will have to use hedge clippers to get out of her dress.

Down Memory Lane

(Photo: malcom McCrow)

Any guesses where this is in Kampala?

Books, Books and More Books.

I came across a post on the Ugandan insomniac's page. It was all about books we have on our shelves and yet we are embarassed to say we have not yet read.

So here's my spin on this:

Books that have given me the greates joy!!!!!

1. Tick bite fever
2. No.1 ladies detective agency (series) ( Alexander McCall)
3. Miguel Street (VS Naipaul)
4. Purple Hibiscus (Chimamanda A)
5. The Prince (Machiavelli
6. Shogun (Jame Clavell)
7. Asterix
8. Tintin

Books that I have and have not read (Shame!)

1. Great railway bazaar (Paul theroux)
2. Isles of Oceana (Paul theroux)
3. A bend in the river (VS Naipaul)
4. Art of War

Books that I seriously need to buy ( and hopefully read)

1. A long walk to freedom
2. A house for Mr. Biswas

Books I have been told that if I haven't read then I am semi literate

1. War and Peace ( oh lord!)
2. Heart of Darkness
3. Midnight's children (salman Rushdie)
4. 100 years of solitude (Garcia Marquez)
5. A suitable boy(Vikram Seth)

Books that I cant be bothered to look for

1. Rich dad Poor dad
2. The monk who sold his ferrari

Buying land in Temangalo ( The NSSF way)

Two weeks ago the story broke in the papers of a land deal that the NSSF was involved with that has the public shaking their heads in disbelief. It runs something like this:

1. Minister Amama Mbabazi has 400 acres (or so) of land to sell in Temangalo.
2. He asks the NSSF to buy it off him.
3. The NSSF, in their wisdom, realise its a serious case of conflict of interest, so they 'cleverly' advise Mbabazi to first sell the land to Mr. Amos Nzeyi (well connected business man and owner of the ugandan pepsi franchise) and they would then buy it off him.
4. Mr. Nzeyi, being the entrepreneur, adds another couple acres to the lot and then sells a total of 463 acres to the NSSF
5. Parliament sees red and demands an explanation!
6. Simple arithmetic shows that the land titles add up to a lower acreage than was purchased (414 to be exact).
7. The government valuer was avoided because he has 'frustrated' the NSSF before and so a private valuer was engaged and he put the value at 10 million Ug Shs more than two previous valuers.
8. The NSSF used an external lawyer to facilitate the deal ( they do have a whole legal department), only for it to be discovered that the same lawyer is also the minister Mbabazi's private lawyer!
9. And the bank (NBC) that handled the transaction on behalf of the NSSF has the minister and the chairman of the NSSF as shareholders.

Do we need to be rocket scientists to realise that something is not right! How much more can the public take of these blatant theft and influence peddling, SURELY!!

Or is is this the wake up call we needed, liberalisation of the pension sector!!!

Dare I say I told you so

After a such long lay off, technical reasons, I am back to blogging and am determined to make a better meal of it, now that I have a jet powered laptop and a great internet connection.

So I cannot help but start off with with one of my favourite subjects and that is airlines. especially our beloved Air Uganda. Remeber her, that beautiful plane and all the optimism and hope of a land locked nation resting on her shoulders, everyone praying that she woould take on the big red machine (KQ) and win.

Well despite the deep pockets of the Aga Khan development fund and the management expertise of Meridiana airlines, the cracks have appeared and even grown into fault lines!!!

The 98% on time performance has gone to the dogs, delays lasting hours and even days are not uncommon. And the image has been shattered. Apparently they are down to one plane instead of two, what ever the reason, and what a mess they have left alot of people, including many who recommended to friends that this was the best option to Entebbe.

Air Uganda is so constrained that it has cut its flights from 2 to only one, in the evening.

Well in the real world patriotism can overcome delays, inefficiency and poor options only for a short while. Busy lives and un missable flight connections cannot allow us to patronise Air Uganda for much longer. And KQ is not standing still, they have finally acquired a replacement for the B737 that crashed in cameroon and shoould be back to full strength in a jiffy.

Are we about to watch another brave Ugandan David get devoured by the Big red Machine, I will close my eyes, the thought being to painful and the puch in the pocket too gut wrenching

Oh Lord! Not Again!!!

First we were told Revolutionaries Live forever.Then he came and promoted a lieutenant to a major.Now we are told revolutionaries cannot retire, apparently term limits are not African.Honestly!!! Anyone who thinks we do not need presidential term limits in Africa needs a serious psychiatric evaluation, especially when you have thousands of sycophants cheering you on.