The author is a senior investigative journalist and political reporter at NBS television. Looting is likely to be the order of the day and this is not because of covid-19 but rather a condition created over a long period of time, it has been a ticking time bomb. Now that COVID-19 has left us naked, and we are on our own, the looming disaster of the economy is going to be perpetuated by those who have been driven out of daily business. We handed our economy to multinationals and suffocated local investors, created competition for them and drove them off the market. Uganda over liberalized trade and that is also how the multinationals shaped our post conflict recovery process. This is a path Uganda took from the late 1980s, recovering from what observers say are Iddi Amin’s non-progressive economic policies. But this communicates to the large picture that the economy is not owned by us. For many parents, the reopening was long overdue. I don’t want to think that this is a case of positioning. Some classes were reopened to students in February 2021, but a total lockdown was imposed again in June as the country faced its first major surge. MARCH 30: Curfew from 7:00pm to 6:30am was imposed and a total lockdown. Major players in banking, are multinationals. Many Ugandans are still struggling to adjust to the new normal, 100 days since. Major players again MTN and Airtel both multinationals.īanks will experience major transactions too, because savings will be withdrawn to take care of the survival needs in homes. Those staying at home will need to support their families and relatives they can’t travel to go see, so they’ll transact through mobile money. The major players Shell, shell Oil Company is a United States-based wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, Total a French multinational integrated oil and gas company. Those that are lucky to have private cars and are able to go to work, will consume fuel, but these are multi-national companies benefitting from this. That might bring you to more than 50% of the entire public transport paralyzed. If you put together taxis, boda bodas – that is already 39% of public transport, add people who own cars but have been asked to stay home by their employers especially government, add those that walk to work on a daily but now have no reason to go to work because there is no business. In 2018, it was estimated that taxis account for 22% of the mode of transport in Kampala Metropolitan, walking accounts for 46%, boda bodas – 17% while 13% for private cars. Like many other countries worldwide, Uganda adopted lockdowns as a temporary twofold measure to fight against the covid-19 pandemic.
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