Management Training and Advisory Centre(MTAC) atraining arm of Ministry of Trade and Industry needs close to sh 25 Billion to scale up its programmes country wide in the next five years.
Speaking at the 9th graduation ceremony under the theme: Promoting Enterprise Development through Skills Training, Mtac Executive Director Mr Soteri Kalanzi Nabeeta said their current budget is inadequate to achieve their expansion plans.
“We appeal to parliament to allocate at least UGX 25 billion to enable us to train at least 100 participants per constituency in Uganda. This would translate into 23,800 entrepreneurs,” Nabeeta said.
“This money would enable us to equip each of the trained participants with a start-up tool kit and ultimately increase productivity,” he added.
According to Mr Nabeeta mtac has trained over 4,190 youths and women country wide under the job creation training programme free of charge.
The Overall purpose for this programme is to enhance entrepreneurial ability of the Beneficiaries create jobs. The beneficiaries were trained in pavers making, candles, sanitary pads, exercise books, soap making, bakery, saloon, and charcoal briquettes among other vocational skills and enterprises.
Nabeeta commented Ministry of Trade for continuous supervision that has helped Mtac management realise their mandate however they request for more funding for programming purposes.
“The Mtac subvention was enhanced from the traditional UGX 100 million per year to UGX 880m per year. Nevertheless, this subvention is still too low to support the centre. Therefore we appeal to the Ministry of Trade to support unfunded priorities.
We would like the ministry to increase the wage bill from current UGX 880 Million per year to at least UGX1.5billion per year. This would enable the centre to even pay the outstanding arrears particularly for the part time staff,” he said.
According to a detailed five years strategic plan, mtac desires sh 25 billion to fund construction of mtac Ntungamo branch, build an incubation centre and build permanent home for Mbale Training centre.
Dr Nahamya Wilfred Deputy Executive Secretary of Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board applauded Mtac for imparting relevant skills to students especially vicsyonsl courses saying they are on demand.
“I wish to thank mtac for walking the talk of vocational skills development.mtac teaches practical courses that are demanded in the job market and enhances graduates to create jobs. This is unique and should be commended,” he said.
Nahamya said most universities teach graduates to get degrees to become job seekers which is not relevant in the marketplace. He added that soon they roll to come up with technical vocational education training law to ensure that vocational skills training is incorporated into the Tertiary education curriculum.
A total of 750 youth and women graduated with certificates and diplomas in different disciplines
Currently, MTAC operates 6 outreach centres in Pader, Mbarara, Ntungamo, Luweero, Iganga, and Mbale District.
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