Kyenjojo District has offered 44 acres of land for a skills
development centre that will benefit the Tooro region. The land is located at
Kijwiga village in Katooke Sub County.
The centre will benefit districts of Kabarole, Kamwenge, Kyenjojo, Kyegegwa,
Ntoroko, Bunyangabu, and Kitagwenda, and will be fully funded and equipped by
State House.
Beneficiaries of the project are youths and women who will receive free
skilling courses that include carpentry, toileting, plumbing and welding.
During the launch on Wednesday at the Kyenjojo District
Headquarters, Chief Administrative Officers, LCV chairpersons, youth
representatives in the Tooro region raised concerns about the centre.
Fred Enock Kaahwa, the Kyenjojo Youth Male Councillor, asked Nakyobe to ensure
the tender is at least given to a company in the region as a way of promoting engineers
from the region.
He also demanded that there should be strict guidelines put in
place for the smooth running of the project and the centre.
Restetuta Atukwase, the Kyegegwa District Female Youth Councillor noted that the
courses that will be offered at the centre do not have duration of training,
which could lead to wastage of taxpayers’ money.
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Steven Oloya, the CAO Kyegegwa, observed that there should be a
linkage between the centre and the other existing government programmes like
Youth Livelihood Programme and Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme for
effectiveness.
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The Kabarole Resident District Commissioner, Steven Asiimwe, asked for close
monitoring of the project.
Lucy Nakyobe, the State House Comptroller, said that State House
will select the contractor for the project and no funds will be given to
Kyenjojo district except the finished centre.
Nakyobe, who declined to disclose how much the centre, will cost, said
that a technical team from State House has finalized with the architectural
designs that will be shared with the Kyenjojo CAO and once approved,
construction will begin immediately.
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On his part, the Kyenjojo district CAO, Samuel Kaija said they have been
waiting for this opportunity and will now embark on sensitizing the masses on
the relevance of the centre.
However, this has not been the first attempt to tackle youth unemployment in
Tooro through skills development.
In Kyenjojo there is Nyamango Technical Institute in Nyantungo Sub
County, but it is struggling to operate due to lack of a library, space in
dormitories and other essential equipment like computers.
The institute, which has an enrolment of 170 students, had only four tutors out
of the required 24.
In Kabarole, the youth centre that was completed in 2014 at
300 million shillings is yet to be put to use.
