Government never dies..

Recently an article appeared in the papers talking about that we had too many institutions. In an industry, there should be no barrier to startup of institutions. This promotes a competitive spirit and allows provision of better and cheaper services to the customers. Universities in Uganda and indeed secondary schools have taken this dimension. For secondary schools, the demand exists and the supply cannot be any better than what we have. The good schools like Kampala Parents are charging a premium. The 3^rd world schools also charge what is affordable in their respective markets. For universities, the shakeout will come more quickly like what is happening in the banking system. Universities will close if they cannot offer efficient services.

Of course some may try to hold on politically but customers vote with their feet. If you service is mediocre and your service charge is too high, they will definitely go away.

However in government, there is a luxury of being able to open up any new institutions and even if the performance mediocre, it will survive, government never dies. Recently, the government of Uganda proposed the establishment of African Graduate Entrepreneurship Institute. The artistic impression of the proposed Centre is here.

MUBS initiated the teaching of entrepreneurship not only in the country but in the region. We offer programmes in entrepreneurship including PhDs. We are the best in this. However when government opens a unit like this and we have no idea, nor input not even consulted, it seems the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.

Our existing institutions are poorly funded. We need to strengthen what we have before we venture into others. Portfolio entrepreneurs open a multiplicity of businesses with numerous objectives in mind. At times they take time to explore their core competencies. At times they see an opportunity and open a business for a short term to exploit that. For instance, it is opportunistic for a bank to go into insurance (though in Uganda, this has been prohibited). It is also opportunistic for a big trading company to start an insurance business. The motivations are not very clear unless if they are political.  Government should have strengthened the entrepreneurship education and training function other than opening new institutions with no capacity to manage them in a technical sense.

The human resource to manage such an institution can only come from MUBS at the academic level. However we watch the space and see what will happen to the institute. Government is not short of solutions.