What do people in Busoga want?

I ordinarily do not do my hair cuts in Jinja but this time I did it. I usually also do not want my presence to be known so I go for ordinary saloons as long as I feel they are safe and hygienic. I visited a small saloon in Jinja town over the weekend andthe topic in the saloon was the Jinja East by-election. The discussion among the people in there was well balanced to my surprise. A Mwiru supporter was crying saying the Besigye- Muntu divide will rob Mwiru of votes because of the current schism in the FDC. A Nabeeta supporter whose voice could not be heard well because of the various arguments was urging the people in the saloon to vote for Nabeeta because Jinja would have another Minister.But he said that Busoga politicians should know what they want because if they don’t they will continue to be marginalized. Let them come together and forget about party differences. I thought this was the smartest proposal I heard about Busoga in a long time but guess where it was coming from. These are the voices of the unheard, people you never invite to make a contribution to a discussion. There is a story about the decision to locate a lift on several buildings in the US, all the educated engineers were unable to find an ideal location it was recommended by a Janitor. He was on the ground. When he spoke to his bosses who were lamenting about the costs that had gone into locating the lift, hardly anybody wanted to listen to him because after all what do Janitors know about such issues. The statistics indicate that the greater Busoga region is the third poorest in the country, if u went to villages now you would be amazed at the levels of poverty. Busoga is performing poorly in education, the production of goods and services other than the maize is very low. During the harvesting of maize people eat boiled maize for meals, the prestigious schools like Mwiri, Butiki are nolonger what they used to be, infact the number of a Basoga in there is low. So probably it is true that Busoga does not need a group of people tearing each other apart, Busoga should vote a consensus candidate as abasis for negotiation not only within the parties but also for purposes of sharing the national cake. I have been impressed by the Bakiga, it seems they have a big religious drive among them but when it comes to Bakiga interests they forget their divisions. They have a Prime minister, a Governor of the Central Bank, they have controlled the Ministry of Finance, and their University is now funded by government. Thanks to their coming together as a group.

You may say Busoga has a secretary General and the Speaker of Parliament. That is true and thanks to them, Busoga enjoys certain benefits but we could do with a little more. I would have been happy if my young brothers Mwiru and Nabeeta could come together to decide what Jinja wants, where should Jinja go, and this should be the basis for a combined manifesto for the Busoga political group. Busoga is ready for a teaching medical school, Busoga is ready for a refurbished source of the Nile, Busoga is ready to improve maize production and storage, Busoga is ready for a major investment in cassava growing and a creation of industries related to cassava. This is a major production factor that no one has talked about. Busoga is ready to exploit its minerals to benefit Abasoga. Hon. Edward Kafufu and team has been talking about this. If you do not know where you want to go as it has always been said any road will take you there but most important you are likely to remain in the same place. Busoga is changing but the change is bringing more poor people in the Busoga region. Busoga needs more positive change to bring more wealth among the people. ISE BANTU AFUVUWE.

The marketing genius of Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines with over 90 planes is the largest airline in Africa and the only profitable one. Both Kenya airways and South African airways continue to make losses. The 70 year old Ethiopian Airline has been growing steadily and recently, it introduced the dream liner, the 787-8 which Kenya followed with disastrous financing results and Ethiopian has already introduced the 787-9, the first African country to do so. It is said that even during the times of Col Mengistu Haile Mariam who introduced socialism in the country, the airline continued to work profitably. The success of Ethiopian airlines is attributed to a number of factors. These include:

Government ownership with necessary government support

Low level of corruption in the Ethiopian economy which has bedeviled many African countries leading to poor performance of government and government parastatals

Of course being there first is another factor. In 2016, Ethiopian Airlines celebrated 70 years, definitely the learning curve should provide it with an advantage. The airline also has an advantage of an internal market. Internally, the airline flies to over 20 destinations. But it is possible that it’s marketing strategy that has propelled the airline to its leadership position in the African market. The airline collects passengers in small numbers from different parts of Africa using small planes and it aggregates them and delivers on medium to long haul routes for instance, it would collect passengers from Cameroun, Uganda, Ghana, Burundi and take them ti Lusaka, Washington DC, Europe and Asian destinations. It also does the reverse. This is where the Dreamliner has been very effective. 

Ethiopian flies to over 100 international destinations across 5 continents and in the last year it carried about 9M passengers. From the time I knew Ethiopian Airlines in the 1970s, it used to fly to Beijing, then Peking. With more than 100 international destinations, Ethiopian airline is adding new routes, they are opening a second route to South America. They will be flying to Sao Paulo in Brazil after Buenos Aires. They have continued to go to African towns where they think there’s business. The marketing effort has been so successful that it has created challenges. While Bole Airport in Addis built several years back is big by African standards, it is not well designed, today there’s a flood of people at the airport. The planes are running late and there are signs of over booking. 

A missing element in the marketing strategy is English, from the national point of view, it is in order that they use Amharic as first language of announcement, they don’t do very well in English. To me, this is an easy thing to do, the people making announcements on plane should be able to speak good clear English. I have not been to china on their flight but I guess, the Chinese language would be added to their announcements on flights to china. Uganda is planning to restart Uganda airlines, I have been a strong advocate against the airline for the time being looking at what Ethiopian is doing giving Kenya Airways and South African Airways, a run for their money, Uganda would struggle. It is okay to borrow money, have planes and an airline that makes losses. This is happening in many parts of Africa in the interest of national pride. But if others are delivering the service cheaply, I don’t see a reason why we don’t invest this money in the Education sector. When the oil starts flowing in Uganda, investment in a Ugandan airline may be cheaper, even at that time, business may be bigger with more passengers than we have today. But the biggest killer of businesses owned by African governments has been corruption. Can a Uganda airline be spared by it? I guess my protestations are of no effect, I can only lament. The learning curve of Ethiopian airlines will not allow new airlines in Africa to compete meaningfully.

My trip to Zambia

I was in Livingstone Zambia attending an Africa Leather and Leather products consultative meeting. The leather industry globally is over 130 billion US dollars. Africa has a less than 5% share in this global trade. The value of the leather business globally by far exceeds the summation of trade in tea, coffee and many other products. Coffee which is Uganda’s main export is worthy only U.S dollar 30 billion. Africa is losing out on this market because of a variety of reasons. These include our readiness, both entrepreneurial and financial to add value to the hides and skin, the emergence of China as a cheap producer of leather products, the import of old shoes in the African market and the unfair trade practices of developed countries including the demand f0r standards, restrictions on imports of leather products and our own failings as in terms of policy and business environment in Africa. 

The leather and leather products institute located in Ethiopia has been at the fore front of seeking improvements in changing this situation. Initially a COMESA institute, it is now an all-African institute and is supporting establishment of training programmes in different institutions in the region, support for small and medium enterprises in the sector, research to inform policy and creating awareness among African countries on the challenge they face and the prospects of wealth creation in the sector. 

Led by the charismatic professor Mwinyikione Mwinyihija, the Institute has supported numerous education institutions and firms initially in the COMESA Region. It is being transformed into an All African Institute because keeping out Nigeria and South Africa when talking about the African market will not be a good business idea. MUBS is participating in these affairs as and academic institution, our plans were to start Programmes in Leather and Leather products at different levels. The informal programmes, Diploma and Degree programmes. Presently, MUBS is undertaking a research in the impact of second hand shoes on the leather sector. Two other universities, one in Kenya and another in Zambia are looking at the different aspects of the leather sector. It is expected that MUBS will commence diploma programmes and also support those with ideas in its business incubator