President Yoweri Museveni has urged young people to prioritise wealth creation over leisure pursuits such as following European football, saying sustainable prosperity lies in production, ideological clarity and market expansion.
Speakin with the Jazz with Jjaja ranch edition on Sunday, Museveni said being young or modern is meaningless without the capacity to correctly diagnose society’s challenges.
“Whether young, modern or what, if you don’t correctly diagnose problems of society, you are a quack,” he said. “You must correctly analyse what society wants.”
He emphasised that the foundation of prosperity is the production of goods and services before concerns about markets can be addressed.
“The market wouldn’t mean much if you don’t produce a good or a service to sell there. That’s where we should start,” Museveni said, urging youths to identify what they can produce for Uganda, East Africa and, if possible, the wider African market.
The President reiterated that wealth and jobs can only be sustainably generated in four key sectors: commercial agriculture, manufacturing or artisanship, services — including hospitality, tourism, music and creative arts — and ICT. He added that creative arts can be incorporated into the education system as part of skills development.
Museveni said government has over the years introduced several funding initiatives to support young entrepreneurs who lack capital, including Entandikwa in 1996, Emyooga and the Parish Development Model (PDM), which was decentralised to parishes in 2021 to bring resources closer to communities.
“That money is there,” he said, but faulted youths for failing to follow up and monitor the programmes, allowing some funds to be diverted.
“The weakness I see on your side is you don’t care or you despise. The money is now diverted by other people because you are not following up,” he added.
Museveni criticised what he described as misplaced activism, recounting an encounter with Kenyan Gen Z youths who told him they were protesting corruption.
“I told them corruption is a problem, but if you don’t solve the issue of producing goods and services and selling them, even if you are not corrupt, you will be stuck,” he said.
He attributed unemployment partly to limited business expansion due to inadequate markets and called for stronger regional integration, particularly within East Africa, to widen markets for locally produced goods.
“If the road from Kasese to Kisangani is not worked on, how will goods travel to the DRC?” he asked, encouraging youths to work collectively to demand better infrastructure to support trade.
The President also challenged young people who, he said, look down on African products or seek opportunities abroad under harsh conditions.
“Why do you despise African products? When you go to Europe and find these people freezing, what are they doing there?” he asked, attributing such migration to ideological disorientation.
Reflecting on his own youth, Museveni said that at 22, while working as a teacher, he used his first salary to purchase land in Rwakitura instead of spending his earnings on leisure.
“Where there was bush in Rwakitura, there was wealth. You need eyes to see substance, not mirages. Wealth and jobs are here,” he said.
He also dismissed the idea that following European football clubs would improve livelihoods.
“You are busy with Arsenal,” Museveni said. “You should take part in things getting you out of poverty — health first, then pleasure next.”
While acknowledging that government funding may not always be sufficient, he urged young people to organise and advocate in unison for prioritisation of productive sectors.
“The money will not be enough, but it can be enough if we demand in one voice to do first things first,” he said.
Museveni called on youths to participate actively in government programmes and focus on production as the pathway to wealth creation and national transformation.
