Government has started efforts that will see Ugandans living and work abroad facilitated to invest back home some of their hard-earned money by improving services offered to them.
On Tuesday in a meeting initiated by the Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora Affairs, Amb. Abbey Walusimbi, several government ministries, agencies and departments met to brainstorm on better ways to ensure Ugandans living and working abroad are enticed to love their country but above all invest back home.
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During the meeting, it was however noted that there are more efforts needed to ensure Ugandans abroad enjoy services of the Ugandan government like having national IDs, renewal of passports and opening bank accounts.
However, the NIRA Executive Director, Rosemary Kisembo said in the past three years, there have been challenges having national IDs provided to Ugandans abroad because of the lack of funds.
He attributed this to the Ugandan government’s policy of banning foreign travels.
“Even for the next financial year, the budget for registration of Ugandans abroad was cut by 100%. As we plan to register and offer services to Ugandans in diaspora, in physical terms, for the 70,000 Ugandans in Dubai will not be registered for IDs and cannot open a bank account or own land. It is important these synergies are felt everywhere,”Kisembo said.
In response, officials from Post Bank told the meeting that they have got challenges having Ugandans in diaspora open up bank accounts since it can only be done using national IDs, many of which don’t have them.
There was a heated debate between the NIRA Executive Director and officials from Post Bank on the issue of issuing national IDs.
Whereas Post Bank insisted on relaxing the measures to allow Ugandans abroad open bank accounts with their passport details, NIRA maintained its ground that national IDs are crucial not for only opening bank accounts but for other purposes like buying land back home.
According to Brig. Johnson Namanya, the Commissioner for Citizenship and Passport Control the Ministry of Internal Affairs has in a bid to take passport services near the Ugandans in diaspora opened up several passport centres to ensure the citizens apply and receive their documents without necessarily returning back home as it was before.
He noted that many passport centres will be opened in many foreign missions as a way of extending passport services to them.
Arnold Bagubwagye, the deputy director in charge of financial markets in the markets department at BoU explained that with better service delivery to Ugandans in diaspora, government can increase on remittances from abroad.
He insisted that before the onset of the Covid pandemic, remittances from Ugandans abroad stood at $1.2 billion, but noted that with improved service delivery, this amount can go up.
“We have not harnessed the Ugandans in diaspora as our resources for development. A survey we did showed that 80% of the remittances by Ugandans in diaspora go into consumption back home like paying school fees and buying clothes .We have also heard of stories of the money eaten by relatives but we believe if we organize ourselves as government and channel these resources into productive enterprises through a safe instrument called the diaspora bond, we would be able to realise much more than the $1.2 billion.,”Bagubwagye said.
He noted that this would mean the Ugandans send five times the amount which would be a good foreign exchange earner but also ensure the Ugandans abroad make an investment.
“Diaspora bonds are safe government securities that even in worst times, government cant fail to pay. The bonds are also liquid in that investors get their money whenever they want to and give a very good return due to the level of risk exposed to.”
The Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora Affairs, Amb. Abbey Walusimbi who convened the meeting said it is high time all government ministries, agencies and departments put together synergies to ensure Ugandans in diaspora enjoy government services and in return invest back home.
“Let us all positively acknowledge that our children abroad are helping their parents build descent homes, they are buying their own land, building private schools, hospitals, and catering for our economy through trade by exporting products into Europe, USA, Canada, Middle East and Asia, but above all, their exposure to a different and fast paced economic environment has engrained in them a spirit of hard work and resilience which in turn has helped them become better people,”Walusimbi noted.
“Countries like Ghana have ripped big through engaging their diaspora and creating favourable investment opportunities for them, why can’t mama Uganda do the same?”
