Uganda’s hospitality industry hopeful of stimulus package from gov’t
Uganda is gradually easing Covid-19 restrictions after several weeks of mandatory lockdown. But among others, the country’s airport remains closed to international travellers forcing hotels into hibernation. 400,000 workers within the sector have been sent home without pay for the past three months.
“...And the majority of these are young people between the ages of 18 and 30 and that really puts them in a precarious situation because they’ve got families, they’ve got bills to pay, they have children whose school fees need to be paid and all that,” says Jean Byamugisha who is the President of the Uganda Hotel Owners Association.
She told VoyagesAfriq in an interview that one of the things they are passionate about is youth employment and getting people back to their jobs.
However, “It is difficult because hotels have no source of income so it’s difficult to ask a hotel owner to bring back their staff or operate at full capacity when there is no business, the international airport is still closed, many companies are not hosting workshops or events and it becomes very tight without a stimulus package,” she pointed out.
Bwashiywa added that they have monitored developments in other countries including neighbouring Rwanda, Kenya and more advanced economies in Europe and US “and through that we’ve got the baseline of trying to come with a package.
She said after several engagements with government and stakeholders, “nothing has been signed off by Parliament and Cabinet yet, so we cannot announce or implement any of the things we’ve been advocating for. But hopefully in a very short while we should be able to see a stimulus package in place that should help start the hotel industry in Uganda.
