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Uganda: Why Saving Souls And Quenching Thirst Are a Short-Cut to Riches
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The East African (Nairobi)
OPINION
5 May 2008
Posted to the web 5 May 2008
Joachim Buwembo
Nairobi
Our co-operative society recently acquired a lakeside tract of land between Kampala and Entebbe and divided it 200 plots for members to buy. One gentleman said he wanted to use his to build a bar so residents don't have to drive to town just for a nightcap.
The co-ordinator said he would be charged a slightly higher price than those who want to build residences. When a lady said she wanted to use her plot to build a church, the co-ordinator said she would be charged an even higher price, because churches these days make much more money than bars.
Welcome to Uganda, the land of business fads. Here we invest in a business not as a result of a careful feasibility study but because it is fashionable. A trend hits town and that's it, whoever has money to spare goes for it.
Today, the in thing to invest in is a church. You do not have to be religious or even spiritual. You only need to have a burning desire to make money. And in Uganda, serious investments are like women's clothes. Either you are in vogue or you are out of place.
In the late 1980s, as order was being restored to the economy, something called "takeaway" took us all by the storm.
Everyone with money was trying to open a fish and chips shop. Till today, many people who do not know the English language still think that "takeaway" is the name for deep fried potatoes, French fries or whatever you call it. Even if you eat this item right there in the restaurant, or prepare it in your house, for us it is a "takeaway."
Anyway, when everybody including slum dwellers discovered the formula for making "takeaway," it lost its shine and the investors moved on.
The next fad, which hit in the early to mid-1990s, was the forex bureau. After decades of currency market control by the central bank, the shilling became freely convertible and dealers outside banks were licensed to buy and sell currency.
CURRENCY BUREAUS SPRANG UP EVERYwhere. They had all sorts of names, some sounding like hair styling salons. With time, the small ones dropped out.
Others now survive by carrying out functions they were not originally intended for, like actual banking and overseas transfers that were the preserve of banks, thanks to the local traders' suspicion of the traditional banks.
Then came the school boom. In the past, public schools were the prestigious ones while private schools were frowned upon, since they took in students with lower grades.
Then government schools started getting crowded, and with teachers there earning a fixed official salary, the attention paid to individual children lessened.
The real avalanche of private schools came with the introduction of Universal Primary Education in 1997, which saw school enrolment doubling overnight.
Even poor parents started harassing their better-off relatives to sponsor their children to private schools. Everyone started hunting for money to build a school, for the returns were just stupendous.
Catastrophes have begun the order of the day in these crowded schools and a few hefty legal suits might force them to start closing down, and the government to take its inspection role seriously.
Alongside all these business fads, there is one that seems to be here to stay. It is the roadside bar, locally known as kafunda.
The word means a small, narrow space. It came in two decades ago to compete with the traditional pub, and today is spreading to every new suburb that crops up.
In many cases, it is combined with a small grocery, for it does not make sense to open premises that are only used for a few hours in the evening.
The kafunda has come to fulfil an important social function, enabling many neighbours to get to know each other, in this era when people no longer visit.
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It is in fact the only credible competitor to the church these days, as beer and the Bible vie to justify god's ways to man.
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