HOW TO PROMOTE ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE IN UGANDA

You will have to agree with me that entrepreneurship has very rewarding aspects to the growth of the economy of any country in the world.  

Most of the developed countries or what we call first world countries have reached those levels simply because they have cultivated a very strong entrepreneurial culture among their citizens. 

For the case of Uganda, this culture is lacking and there is some urgent need to develop that culture so that we can also start seeing the benefits and fruits of developing such a culture. 

We are churning out very many graduates into the job market every year and most of these youths end up on the streets doing nothing to earn a living for themselves. 

Today I would like to discuss this topic of developing an entrepreneurial culture in our country. 

How do we do it  so that we can enjoy the benefits of entrepreneurship in our country like the creation of jobs, increase in revenue collection and ultimately the improvement of standards of living among our people that will help in reducing poverty levels may be even we shall reach the middle income status that the government has been advocating for.

Encourage Critical Thinking

We have schools and higher institutions of learning where we are supposed to learn how to become better people and live a good life but unfortunately we are not realising the benefits of these schools. 

The main reason why our graduates cannot reason critically is simply because we are putting more efforts into passing exams and cram work than bringing out creativity within these young people. 

When I was still at university, we used to do projects and some of these projects would be group work which means this helped you to learn how to work in a group and also these projects helped you to learn how to think creatively and solve problems around you in a unique way. 

That was one of the course units that truly added value into my life other than all the other trash that I learnt.  

By giving youths tasks that are practical and problem solving we will be helping them to analyse issues and think critically. 

Most of the school curriculum encourages cram work. In simple terms our students are reading to pass exams but not to solve problems that exist in our society but giving students projects to work on will help them think critically and try to solve problems.  

That’s what we need if we are to release graduates who will be willing to venture into entrepreneurship. The fact is entrepreneurship is all about solving problems around us in a very unique way.

Teach our youths to fail properly

Successful entrepreneurs embrace failure and make it their friend this is simply because they will learn a lot from their failures more than they could from what actually worked. 

Our school system demonises failures and makes them feel very bad about themselves.  I remember when I was still in school especially primary school, those who failed were beaten up by the teacher for failing. 

If we can learn how to help our youths to respond to failure, then we will be very close to building a society that will embrace the entrepreneurial culture that we want our society to embrace. Failure is supposed to help us learn what works and what does not work.   

In Uganda today, we have realised that very many businesses that start do not actually celebrate their first birthday, what happens  is that they fail and the owners give up.  We should help our youths to learn how to pick up after a failure and move forward.

Read Biographies

The biggest problem we have in Uganda is our reading culture. The reading culture of most African countries is very poor and that is why sometimes we are actually lagging behind.

 There is a very common saying that if you want to hide something away from an African the best place to hide that is inside a book. This simply means that we do not read enough.  

Most of us only read to pass exams and after the exams are over, we go back to our ignorance.  

But if you truly want to be a successful entrepreneur make books your friend. You will learn a lot from them. If you read biographies of successful people like the Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos, you will learn a lot from them. 

These great entrepreneurs will inspire you to chase your dreams and ultimately achieve your goals in the long run.

 Attitudes about Business

In the Ugandan society, we believe that the people who venture into business or entrepreneurship are failures in life. Our attitude towards business is actually not helping us to build the culture of entrepreneurship.  

We think that the formal education that we get in schools only opens doors to jobs and only jobs we are not keen at looking at other options that are available for us. 

I could call this we fear the unknown.  Most people love comfort that’s why they do not actually venture into business world. 

After graduating most youths only think about looking for jobs, they do not look at other available options that can help them succeed in life. 

Even those who are lucky enough to land a job after venturing into business world will not actually concentrate on business instead they will close their businesses and join the employment sector. That’s how bad it is. 

In Uganda if you tell people that you are doing business, most people will look down on you, they will think you are wasting time.

 To them, if you work in a great company or fortune e 500 company like Coca-Cola, Google, Microsoft or in the banking sector then you have arrived. If we can change this culture, then we can change our entrepreneurial culture.  

Our education system teaches us to look for jobs instead of creating the jobs. We can change this attitude by telling people that businesses and entrepreneurship is the back bone of the economy for every country in the world.

Get Good Role Models

 You should have somebody that you look up to. The people that you do admire and wish that you become like them or at least accomplish what they have accomplished in their lives.  We should encourage our youths to get good role models. 

Our society has very few people who live up to that challenge that the youths out there can look up to. 

If we truly want to change this country and develop an entrepreneurial culture, we should get good role models who can help us get there. For my case, I do admire successful entrepreneurs and business people. 

The likes of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates not because they have lots of money but because they work hard and do not easily give up on their goals.

 If our youths choose good people that they look up to, they will certainly attain their goals. These few tips will certainly help us build a better entrepreneurial culture that we shall all benefit from.