Joseph Mawejje

Uganda has recorded impressive economic growth rates over the last two decades. However, over the same time periods, the tax effort measured by the tax-to-GDP ratio has stagnated at between 10-13 percent. One of the factors that could explain the stagnated revenue performance is tax evasion.   Other factors are related to corruption and inefficient service delivery. As a result, Uganda has continued to struggle with inadequate funds to finance its budget. Recently donors, who contributed as much as 25% of the budget, unanimously decided to withhold their support due to allegations of corruption in various government departments. This has affected the performance of the Ugandan economy, with major implications on service delivery and business growth. In response, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has had its tax collection targets elevated to close the financing deficit. However, the biggest challenge remains ensuring tax compliance, especially considering the size of the

Last week, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) held a conference on African oil and gas , with this year’s theme being good governance. The 16th African Oil, Gas and Minerals Trade and Finance Conference and Exhibition provides an opportunity for dialogue among the various stakeholders of extractive industries. This year’s conference focus on governance is even more critical as it will help to stimulate debate on issues of accountability and transparency.  And, with the new oil and gas discoveries in East Africa, this is the opportune time to discuss governance.  Since African extractive industries are often shrouded in secrecy and lack clear revenue management and accountability mechanisms, good governance is essential for African countries to properly harness their natural resources for development. A focus on the governance of natural resources is even more pressing at this time when Africa is fast emerging as the new frontier for mineral r

Uganda, with one of the biggest youthful population also has one of the highest levels of youth unemployment.  This means that unemployment is extremely high and that the most affected are the youth. Now, we all know that the youthful years are the most productive. This implies that Uganda's unemployed youth are a hindrance to national development. The unemployment problem seems to be getting worse despite the impressive economic growth. In short, Uganda has experienced jobless economic growth! Ofcourse some people will be quick to point to the high population growth. May be they have a point. May be not. One only has to look at China to read my mind. What is surprising is that whereas as we have a lot of "qualified youth" waiting for their first job, the private sector is struggling to find suitable employable talent. Or better, the business managers are struggling to match the available skills and attitudes to their jobs!  So where is the problem? Could it be that the

Natural resource management and governance often ignore the needs, fears and concerns of the local communities to both the government and the people’s detriment.   Too often the needs of local communities are overlooked when such great economic opportunities arise.   While local communities often expect great things from new natural resource discoveries, they also fear and anticipate marginalisation by the government and the incoming corporations, according to a study by the Economic Policy and Research Centre (EPRC) that examines how prepared Uganda is to accelerate growth and maintain intergenerational equity, the impact of the burgeoning Ugandan oil sector on the lives and concerns of the people most directly affected by this new industry. The last decade has seen resurgence in interest of the vast natural resources in Africa. Oil and gas resources have been at the forefront of natural resource exploration in many countries in Africa. It now widely believed that Africa is the new

The recent developments have seen a surge in inflation from 3.4 percent in April to 7.3 percent in August 2013. The surge in inflation has come on the backdrop of a prolonged drought that affected food production and resulted in poor harvests across the country. This food supply shock has been exacerbated by the seasonal demand for seeds as the planting season starts. Thus food and cereal prices have started to increase and this has fed into higher inflation. For example the average price for a kilogram of beans is now Ushs 2,500 compared to Ushs 1,500 two months ago.   However, food inflation can feed into core inflation (that excludes food, energy and utilities prices) directly through its effect on the prices of processed food, cost push effects and inflation expectations for example through hoarding and speculative tendencies. Indeed increases in food inflation from -7.5 (minus 7.5) percent in April 2013 to 13 percent in August 2013 have been followed by increases in core inflatio