Unemployment has remained Uganda’s citizens’ top concern, according to findings from the Sauti za Wananchi survey by Twaweza, a non-governmental organization that tracks citizens’ views on governance and public services.
The study in which Citizens identify a number of pressing issues facing the country at the time, conducted between February and March 2025, found that unemployment has remained the leading concern of Ugandans, standing at 39% from the sample.
This is tied health services concerns 39%.However, while unemployment has remained the biggest threat in general, the Sauti za Wainchi report shows that there are some differing views on the most serious problems facing Uganda according to demographics.
In particular, the report says: “Residents of rural areas, poorer households and those with lower levels of education are less likely to point to unemployment as a top issue, but more likely to point to corruption. There are only small differences, however, between the views of women and men on this. The only substantial exception is that men are more likely than women to point to corruption as being one of the biggest challenges facing the country. Residents of rural areas are twice as likely as their urban counterparts to cite hunger as a major concern. Poorer and less well-educated citizens share this concern. However, an opposite trend applied to poverty and inequality: in this case, wealthier and better-educated citizens are more likely to cite this as a problem.”
This report comes at a time when the government has put forward different programs to empower unemployed people as well as eradicating poverty with the most recent one being the Parish Development Model.
For a long time, the government has battled with unemployment particularly of university graduates who graduate annually in huge numbers without clear path on their next destinations.This is exacerbated by the fact that Uganda has one of the youngest populations globally.
Only 12.86 percent of Ugandan graduates secure formal employment, according to Mastercard Foundation. Annually, Uganda churns out over 700,000 people into the labour market, but only 90,000 secure formal employment, leaving hundreds of thousands unemployed.
Currently, Uganda’s unemployment rate according to Uganda Bureau of Statistics’ 2024 National Population and Housing Census report stands at 12.3 percent with 42.6 percent of youths aged 15-24 not in employment, education, or training.
Uganda’s soaring youth unemployment rate comes at a time when there is a mismatch between graduate skills and labour market demands. To curb this problem, earlier this year, President Museveni announced plans to establish a special fund to support university graduates who remain unemployed for two years after completing their studies.
The Fund, according to Museveni, will enable university graduates to access loans to start their own businesses. Museveni said this while addressing his supporters at Kololo independence grounds following his nomination for the presidency in the forthcoming elections.
For universities like Makerere, innovation funding has been one of top priorities where students are supported to start up innovations that can manifest into full-scale businesses before graduating to join the job-seeking population.
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