By Fred M. Mukhwana
Premier Recruitment Limited, which is part of the Ruparelia Group, has secured more jobs for Ugandans who want work in Qatar.
According to the statement released by the company, those needed are cleaners and cleaning supervisors and are to work at Qatar Metro. Interviews were done a few days ago. The company was looking for individuals who have a good command of English and working experience in hotel or facilities management.
The successful applicants will earn salary of between US$250-US$550 per month, which comes with free accommodation, transport, air ticket and many more.
In February, the company sent its first batch of 8 Ugandan ladies to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to work as domestic workers on a two year contract.
In November 2018, Premier Recruitments Limited also placed an announcement for jobs in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The required Ugandans were to work for White Star Repackaging and Refiling Services LLC which has promised to offer the workers better working conditions. Salaries range from Shs1.8 million for packaging helpers, Shs2.5 million for labour supervisors and between Shs3.5 –Shs4 million for warehouse supervisors.
The latest recruitment drive by Premier Recruitment comes at the time when the UAE has asked the government of Uganda for 80, 000 workers, according to Hajat Janat Mukwaya, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
“Immediately upon signing of the MoU, my colleague Minister H.E Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli challenged me as follows: “I need 80,000 Uganda workers in the next 12 months.” This is a huge undertaking and I urge the private sector to take up this offer,” Mukwaya said while addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that Uganda signed with UAE on labour export.
Impressive growth
According to Mr. Rajiv Ruparelia, CEO Premier Recruitment, the Uganda labour externalisation industry is a vital source of livelihood for both the employees and their families and a major pillar of the economy that ought to be protected by all the stakeholders and bad apples weeded out. “Uganda has a competitive advantage over a number of African countries because of our good English that we need to leverage just like our neighbours in Kenya.
According to the World Bank and IMF Balance of Payments as well as Bank of Uganda data, personal remittances to Uganda have grown by 174.6 per cent from $451.6 million (Shs1.66 trillion) in 2007 to $1.24 billion (Shs4.5 trillion) in 2017, but our neighbours, Kenya raked in $1.962 billion (UShs7.2 trillion) in 2017 and $2.5 billion (Shs9.2 trillion) in 2018,” noted Rajiv, adding: “Diaspora remittances to Uganda are equivalent to 30 per cent of Uganda’s traditional export earnings- $3.4 billion (Shs12.5 trillion) in 2017 and $3.6 billion (Shs13.2 trillion) in 2018 and almost 3 times bigger than coffee export receipts- $555.4 million (Shs2 trillion) in 2017 and $436.4 million (Shs1.6 trillion) in 2018. Protecting and harnessing more value from this vital sector should be the responsibility of everyone.”
Rajiv also said, beyond direct economic gains, labour externalization had other benefits such as skills transfer, mobilisation of capital for investment and improving household incomes and standards of living for their dependents back home. The Bank of Uganda, Personal Transfers Survey 2017 indicated that the Middle East was the second biggest source of remittances to Uganda (28.6 per cent) after Africa (29 per cent). Europe (20.7 per cent) and North/South America (18.41 per cent) were third and fourth respectively.
According to the Uganda Association for External Recruitment Agencies, there are 140,000 skilled and semi-skilled Ugandans working in the Middle East as blue-collar professionals as well as technicians, security personnel, porters, drivers, cleaners, housekeepers, catering and hospitality personnel. Domestic workers only account for about 30 per cent. The survey also showed that remittances benefited up to 820,000 households and that $6 out of every $10 received, went to financing household expenses and education.
