A must read!
Topic; Visas / Travel advisories
Last night I was reflecting and thought about the future of African countries especially Uganda.
For Uganda to succeed, we must do business with the already developed countries.
If we don’t do business with them, we shall continue to either chase for Aid or loans and both simply sink us like it’s happening.
The Developed countries are trading with us but it’s one way if you took time to study the figures.
They already pretty much control our essential sectors and these sectors make money even in our time of trouble.
Those sectors are banking, insurance, telcos etc and some are owned indirectly through shares. Will highlight that in future!
But the developed are controlling us using VISAs and TRAVEL ADVISORIES as trade barriers and we don’t have strong leaders that can stand up and engage.
Our leaders are given softer terms for visas through service passports for the case of Uganda. This actually blinds them from engaging. It doesn’t generally affect them.
The general population on the other hand is discussing how men shouldn’t be locked out when they return late at home.
90% of the people with service passport aren’t going out there to look for business opportunities for uganda, they aren’t business people.
Visa costs will continue to be very expensive( that is earning for the developed countries), already cost of travel from Africa is too high.
Every country needs a healthy economy as top priority and economies are composed of many businesses.
Businesses are created mainly by entrepreneurs and if I want to kill your economy, I make sure your entrepreneurs can’t access free movement to countries with opportunities.
The other massive trade barrier is travel advisories, the developed countries know that when their citizens visit less developed countries, those countries earn money.
The attached below will help you understand how tourism facilitated through free or easy movement is massive opportunity for countries.
The people from the developed countries will continue to control businesses in less developed countries and free movement for their citizens will facilitate that.
They simply post negative travel advisories on their websites and go to sleep and we don’t have the ability to engage or fight back.
Negative travel advisories affect travel insurance and wealthy people won’t travel without travel insurance so we miss chances of earning from their wealthy people.
These are things us voters should engaging those who want to lead us on but they also generally don’t make sense to us the voters. Those who want to lead then simply concentrate on giving us sugar and salt.
Right now a French Citizens or American citizen doing business in uganda has big advantage over me by far even when I think I have a good brain and good work ethics.
They enter Uganda anytime they so wish and can move around the world to look for business anytime they want and if they are disturbed, their embassies here in Uganda will fight for them.
Don’t forget they can access cheap financing from their countries already something that’s so far fetched for me, the serious business decisions for banks here in uganda are made in their countries.
What should Ugandan do?
1- Engage countries that have their citizens operating businesses here in uganda to make sure our entrepreneurs can access easily business opportunities in their countries.
2 - push for Intra Africa business opportunities , African countries trade with each other only 16%
3 - push for business with say Asian countries since they don’t seem to always block us through visas and negative travel advisories
4 - invest in lobbying since some of these visas issues and travel advisories can be sorted outed through lobbying.
5 - since our leaders dine with representatives of these countries, we should encourage them to discuss serious stuff like what am writing about above.
Note: tag leaders