According to the African Union’s Partnership for Evidence-based Response to Covid-19 research, Sub-Saharan Africa has administered 153 million doses of the 317 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine received. In Uganda, the total COVID-19 doses administered as of 31st December 2021 were 11.3 million and out of this, 3.7 million people had been vaccinated fully either with 2 dozes of the various vaccine types or the one vaccine of Johnson and Johnson. President Museveni, in his address on 31st December 2021, noted that of the 22million people, 45% (9,979,206) of the target population, had received at least one shot of the vaccine and 17% had been fully vaccinated.
In his address, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda acknowledged that the measures undertaken to mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus dealt a huge blow to different sectors including the economy in general.
“The tough measures we took, were to buy time so that we find better solutions. Although we are opening the economy, you should be alerted that the new Corona variant, the omin-corona, is spreading very fast,” he said.
I need, however, to add that you should be answerable also for the safety of your life,” he cautioned.
While this percentage still sits below the target, there has been significant progress in the uptake of the vaccine. This progress has come, in part, due to the interventions put in place by the private sector to encourage and ease the process for Ugandans to get vaccinated as a prerequisite for the opening up of the economy.
Uganda faced the first wave of the pandemic between April and June 2020 and the second wave around the same time, forcing the country into two painful lockdowns that saw over 15 million learners stay home for two years, destruction of business patterns, and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. As a result, the country’s growth rate dropped to 3 per cent from the pre-pandemic rate of over 6 per cent per annum.
In September last year, Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) teamed up with Coca-Cola Beverages Africa in Uganda, Uganda Breweries Limited, Kampala Capital City Authority, and the Ministry of Health to speed up COVID-19 vaccination and the opening up of the economy by increasing the number of vaccination points in the Kampala Metropolitan Area for more people to get access to the available vaccines. The drive also focused on public sensitization to drive awareness of the benefits of vaccination as a measure against the prevailing pandemic.
Stephen Asiimwe, the PSFU Director, emphasized the responsibility that the private sector has to play to ensure that businesses and communities thrive, are safe and protected at all times.
“As PSFU, we shall continue to represent, engage, serve and build the private sector. The private sector continues to complement Government efforts such as using private business premises for vaccination and donating generously supplies, food, health equipment etc. This is how we have worked together to ensure the economy opens and we shall continue to do that,” reiterated Stephen Asiimwe’.
Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary, Ramathan Ggoobi met with the Private Sector leaders to discuss strategies for enhancing private sector coordination and public-private sector cooperation for the common good to enhance competitiveness. This streamlining is expected to strengthen the private sector as the engine of growth.
“Government is going to implement practical actions under domestic revenue mobilization strategy to generate more revenue & reduce the share of the budget that is financed through borrowing. We are going to enforce compliance instead of introducing new taxes,” he shared.
Diageo to Exit East African Breweries as Asahi Takes ControlAccording to Melkamu Abebe, the General Manager at Coca-Cola Beverages Africa in Uganda, CCBA deliberately focused on OCCDs, bar and restaurant employees, and boda boda riders as specific groups to bring them back to work and to trigger the night economy.
“Our focus on specific groups was on recognition of their contribution to the growth of Uganda’s economy and the significant role that they would play in economic recovery after the pandemic. We quickly realized that businesses will not operate normally unless employees and customers are protected from COVID-19 and we, therefore, championed several initiatives to get all our employees vaccinated,” he said.
This was not the first time that boda boda cyclists and other vulnerable groups had been identified as vulnerable and yet essential players in Uganda’s economic recovery. A few months earlier, in June, the national COVID-19 taskforce headed by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja had decided to give 100,000 shillings each to the vulnerable people in Uganda as part of the relief program for the 42-day lockdown period – a relief package that cost 53 billion shillings to cover 530,000 vulnerable Ugandans.
With the number of Ugandans losing their livelihoods and becoming more vulnerable increasing each day, it was increasingly clear that Ugandans needed to be vaccinated and the lockdowns lifted if the government was going to remain with any money for other budgetary priorities.
Working with Rotary International, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa in Uganda managed to support the vaccination efforts further-reaching over 50,000 Ugandans.
“The private sector offered structure for the planning process. Rotarians were very instrumental during the vaccination program in that they volunteered their time, resources and mobilized communities to turn up for the vaccinations. It would have not been possible if all stakeholders hadn’t worked together,” said Peace Taremwa, Rotary International District Governor Elect (DGE)
According to Uganda Breweries Limited’s Juliana Kagwa, economic recovery remained hinged on vaccination that would enable the easing of restrictions that were impacting business recovery.
“Through this initiative, we intend to drive awareness of the benefits of vaccination and encourage as many people as possible to get vaccinated. This will be done through mobile sites spread around the city to bring vaccines closer to people and scale up accessibility and convenience. The collaboration between the government and private sector is key to ensure that the public health response to the pandemic is strengthened to mitigate the devastating socio-economic impacts of the pandemic,” she said, during the announcement of the campaign.
The Private sector interventions led by PSFU and other committed industry players ensured that over 90,000 Ugandans received vaccinations from different locations across Kampala and surrounding areas.
