Along Balya Road in Fort Portal, a town in western Uganda on the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains, there is a small but busy graphic design shop, called Kabarole Red Enterprises.

The owner and manager, John Koojo, proudly shows his equipment for making tie-dye embroidery and printing banners, signposts and labels. On display are screen printing machines, printing films, computers, T-shirts, fabric ink and dye.

In less than 3 years, Koojo, aged 38, has made a name for himself. The demand for branded goods and customised T-shirts is high in this fast-growing town. Among his customers are schools, churches, cooperatives and businesses.  

He owes his success to an advert he came across in 2017. A graphic design teacher at Rosa Mystica Institute offered a six-month course to whoever was interested.  

The course was funded by the Belgian development agency as part of a skills training programme, aimed at addressing the huge problem of youth unemployment in Uganda.  

Although Koojo had studied Arts and Design at the university some 20 years earlier, he lacked the practical experience. Indeed, the university did not have any of the tools and machines needed in the present-day labour market.  

Failing to find a job after graduating from university, Koojo had worked for many years at his uncle’s tailoring workshop. The training course changed everything.

His art and graphics skills greatly improved and with the sale of his first customised T-shirts, he was able to open a shop in the town’s business centre. Now he earns about 1.5 million shillings a month.

With that money, he has been able to buy land, construct and furnish a house and send his three children to school.

Koojo is also passing on his skills to other youth in Fort Portal. He trains them for three to five months and charges 500,000 shillings for the entire course.

‘If they wish to stay and work for me, they are allowed and they earn a commission on items sold and clients brought,’ he said.

Isaiah Buttuura, an IT student from Makerere University, is one of his apprentices. Buttuura used the three-month lockdown, introduced by the Government to fight COVID-19, to get the practical skills needed to start up his own business. “The training has helped me to acquire skills. I was also able to earn some money which kept me going during the lockdown,” he said.

Koojo's long-term dream is to transform his workshop into a quality training centre for unemployed youth. “Let young people get hands-on training. Skills development gives them a better chance to be job creators, rather than job seekers,” he said.

The Skills Development Fund of the Belgian development agency has so far benefitted 2,450 young people in the Albertine-Rwenzori region.