COVID-19 threatens 3.8 million jobs-EPRC

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  The private business community has cast doubt over the viability of government policies aimed at supporting the economy during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.  These include tax deferments, and financial packages.

In the 2020/2021 budget, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development provided more than one trillion shillings through the Uganda Development Bank, towards private businesses.

However, Gideon Badagawa, the Private Sector Foundation Uganda Chief Executive Officer says, this money is likely to be misused because the small and medium enterprises that they are supposed to go to, are not formal.

He suggests that the government first focuses on formalizing and registering the MSMEs, which are the major sources of employment, before giving them relief packages.

He was speaking at the launch of the report by the Economic Policy Research Center titled MSMEs Resilience and Economic Recovery in the face of Covid 19.

The report projects that if the pandemic persists for the next six month, 3.8 million workers will lose their jobs, three quarters of them, in Kampala.

Hoima Municipality MP, Lawrence Bategeka wondered how the government could maintain policies like low inflation, high domestic borrowing and debt servicing and taxes, in an uncertain economic environment.

A Principal Economist at the Ministry of Finance Richard Jabo said that the tax deferrals and stimulus packages the government put in place are informed by researches, but adds that more could be done if there is new evidence to suggest so, and resources to support it.

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