UUSFA, OWC discuss sports development support programs

The Union of Uganda Sports Federations and Associations (UUSFA) and Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) met to discuss matters of sports development in Uganda.

This meeting was held on Monday, the 14th March 2021 at OWC headquarters in Kamwokya.

In his capacity as interim chairman of the union, together with his team, Muhangi presented a proposal to the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) team headed by Joseph Masembe on the invitation of Ms. Sylvia Owori the Director of Operation

In their presentation, UUSFA expressed the dangers of the abandoned number of youths in the sports sector and called for urgent attention if the country is to ensure continued stability.

“Our nation now faces a very serious challenge of youth unemployment, idleness and crime. Some of these youths have of recent made several attempts to turn the country upside down in acts bordering on anarchy.

OWC has thus far majorly dealt with the agricultural sector of Uganda (i.e. Farmers) and may be those doing value addition to agricultural produce. This means OWC has only targeted those with land, those with an interest in agriculture and those with an interest in agricultural transformation.

OWC has not dealt well or strongly enough with Ugandans whose major gift or interest is talent based. This where a good number of the youth fall. Most youth also live in urban and peri-urban areas which are largely devoid of cultivable land.
The acts of disorder by the youths have every potential to disorganize all activities and achievements thus far made by OWC and indeed the country at large.” Part of UUSFA presentation.

The Union further elaborated the potential of sports in curbing unemployment, idleness and society disorders through sourcing for more development resources for Ugandan Sports Federations and Associations to accommodate more youthful Ugandans in the sector.

“UUSFA hereby requests OWC to include Sports amongst the programs it targets and supports so as to create wealth for the nation. Use of sports to deal with the youth unemployment and idleness problem would present OWC with the following advantages:

• Youths by their nature and age are more drawn towards talent (and fun) based
activities such as Sports than toiling activities like agriculture.

• Sports have the capacity to mop youth idleness much faster and in bigger numbers than any other sector. For instance, whereas most crops and animals on average mature in about 6 – 12 months, we can start up sports clubs in just 2 – 4 weeks.

• With the Global sports market now standing at 700 billion US Dollars, sports present very good prospects for “Return on Investment” e.g. by exportation of our talented athletes, training camps run by our World Champions, etc.

• Sports as a tool for elimination of youth idleness and unemployment can be deployed even where no land for Agriculture exists, especially in the towns.

• Sports as an employment sector has exponential capacity that cannot be exhausted because it can keep on getting created (and quickly) as the need arises. This is not the case for say jobs in government agencies that can run out and hence no longer able to absorb the unemployed youths. The same applies to jobs in banks, factories, telecoms, hospitals, etc. all of which cannot be created as fast as the need arises.

Born out of the desire to unlock the true potential of the sports sector by sourcing for more development resources for Ugandan sports federations and associations, the Union looks forward to hit it’s aims shortly.

UUSFA aims to use the sourced resources to turn Ugandan Sports into a lucrative sector of the Ugandan economy and in the process help to foster national unity, peace, patriotism and development.