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Reading random pieces of meaningful content online is where I
find peace and happiness for me sometimes and that where I get to learn and
unlearn. Well, today, when I work up and
opened my WhatsApp, I came across this article written by Allan Spark
Ahimbisibwe CEO of spark Africa that caught my attention so much that I couldn’t
resist to share.
This piece of work was a reality check to me. Well, I really
don’t know what seems mind blowing and life charging to you but I guess that
this article helps you change your mindset that’s only if you relate and find
it meaningful to you. Here is how he beautifully started off his on the degree
holder/ graduate mindset
👉I remember when I was
growing up my dream was always to read hard ,pass with good grades ,go to
Makerere University (the best in the Uganda) and get a good job in a bank or
big organization.
👉I managed to do my part
& made it to Makerere University with a good course in statistics.
👌After graduating, I was
lucky to get a job with a bank earning 700k a month ,at first I thought this
was much money but after working for over 8months and I had no achievement not
even a single saving ,I made a hard decision to resign.
I decided to think like I had no degree, I actually forgot that I had even gone to University.
I went back to my mother’s home, started my urban farming
project and that's how my story of entrepreneurship started without capital but
rather passion.
🙏5 years down the road
,I have built one of the fastest growing Agribusiness Companies from scratch
employing over 12 young people with an impact on over 10000 farmers in Africa
(I will add to my story in another article, for now let's go
back to the topic👇
Key to note
✊Things have changed so we must
change too, Universities in the 70s used to produce 1000 graduates each year
and they would get jobs even before finishing, but now each year we graduate
more than 200,000 from over 40 universities and 100 institutes.
🤔When I graduated from
Makerere University 2017, we were 15000 students in my year.
Its 5years now but not even a quarter of these are employed.
Remember each year more graduates are coming in even before
10% of the previous year have got jobs.
Looking for jobs actually becomes their job
Where are these people going? Even if we pray day and night,
sleep in church, we can't have jobs for even a quarter of these graduates.
👉This is because we have
few job creators and the same number of jobs year after year.
Whoever finishes school wants to work in a big Bank, NGO,
government and other big companies
🧟♂The
people in these offices are not willing to leave even after working for over
20years.
This leaves new graduates with no jobs.
📚The education system
only trains us to work for another person for a pay cheque and make sure his
dreams are achieved, it doesn't prepare us for the current competitive world
where almost everyone has gone to school.
🙆🏻♂️I
did a survey around my home town in Nansana and I realized almost everyone on
the streets has a degree, chapatti sellers, small market vendors, taxi
conductors and all kinds of people we see in the informal sector are all educated
and they are now in the real world.
So going to school shouldn't make you feel you are special
in this age
🤔Most of the educated
people in Africa are poor not because they are dense but the way they see
things just doesn't apply to the real world.
🕺🏻The lucky ones
who get a job earn less than $200 for a salary before tax and other deductions.
When the deductions are put into consideration, the net salary comes to around
$160. The net salary then suffers from loan deductions, the landlord then demands
for his share and monthly shopping takes away something, transport to and fro
work takes, eating and other emergencies come in. The whole salary is gone and
borrowed money starts working.
Someone then has to work for over 30 years to have a
tangible achievement.
Let's imagine, you save 1 million off your salary every
month, meaning 1year you have 12million, it will take you over 83 years to
raise 1Billion.🙆🏻♂
Ugandan shillings
Problems of Degree holders
Ø
A degree holder does not know how to generate
money even from the simplest thing unless that money is generated for the
employer. He is so dependent on the salary that he can do anything to get a job
rather than starting a business of his own to employ others not even operate a
chapati Business where he can make 30k a day.
Ø
A degree holder is not prepared to start a
company and grow it in 2 to 3 years but will spend 4 years searching for a job
and works for 30years pushing another person's dream.
Ø
A degree holder will not do some businesses just
because he thinks he is above that level ,like tell him to sell merchandise or
do door to door delivery.
Ø
They always have an excuse of not having capital
to start business, and they will ask for millions to start business, this is
very wrong. Business starts with an idea and the will.
Ø
A degree holder will blame the government for
lack of jobs even when he was on government bursary for him to have his degree.
✍🍝🍹 At the University I went to, there is an old man very humble and illiterate, he knew very little English but sells Soda at 1500shs and Fresh juice at 1000 each making a profit of 600shs on each soda plus 500shs on juice. He also sells chips at 2500shs making a profit of 800shs on each plate. Not less than 30 students buy chips and a drink every single day. This means he makes a profit of 18000 for a soda, 15000shs for juice and 24000 for chips and a total profit of 57,000shs every single day. In 10 days he makes a profit of 570,000shs, in twenty days 1,140,000shs that's over 1.5 million a month
👊 Why are the degree
holders poor?
Because they have decided to pride themselves in a degree
and failed to think better than a man who does not have even a certificate to
his name.
👌If you want to
progress, throw away that degree and start thinking better than someone without
a degree. Have an open mind and start anything that can make you money.
Be prepared to get your hands dirty and work like an ox for
your business.
🍋A lot of opportunities
exist in Africa but u have to be keen to identify them, Agribusiness Is one of
the sectors young graduates should put a keen thought to, a lot of problems and
gaps that need innovative solutions.
👌Have something to offer
to society, it can be a product or service. Sell Something
🐄🐓🐇🍉🍅🌽🍆🥕
Start from where you are with what you have.
🤝 Share with All Graduates
in Africa
What do you think about this article? or you can read more about Allan's work
READ: WHY GRADUATES DIE POOR
