Uganda’s leading External Labour Recruitment Company, Premier Recruitment Limited managing director Mr Rajiv Ruparelia has welcomed the move by the Ministry of Gender Gender & Labour to start licensing new external labour recruitment companies after a long wait.

Mr. Rajiv said this in response to a public notice issued on Friday by the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) announcing that it is set to resume licensing new external labour recruitment companies starting 1st February 2022.

“Finally, Let them come; we have work to do as an industry,” he added, explaining that there is room for the labour externalization industry to accommodate newcomers,” Rajiv said when contacted him to comment on the development, especially the lifting of the moratorium imposed on licensing of new companies in April 2019.

The Gender Ministry’s permanent secretary A. D Kibinge said the ban on issuing new licenses was needed in order to address some of the challenges in the Externalization of Labour Programme.

“Key among this has been the revision of the law culminating into the Employment (Recruitment of Ugandan Migrant Workers) Regulations, 2021, Statutory Instrument No. 47 of 2021, which came into effect on 13th August 2021,” Kibinge said in the notice.

He explained that the process to review the guidelines to operationalize the new regulations is ongoing and in draft form and drafts have been shared with stakeholders to capture their input.

“In view of the above, and the fact that upgrade of the ministry’s External Employment Management Information System (EEMIS) is ongoing and almost complete, the ministry would like to inform all concerned that the processing of new recruitment licenses will resume on 1st February 2022,” Kibinge revealed.

Labour externalization is largely the recruitment of migrant workers to decent employment opportunities and promotes the protection of their rights and welfare in destination countries.

Uganda, according to Kibenge, has 216 private external labour recruitment companies and over 300, 000 Ugandans have been formally externalised to work abroad since 2005. The Ugandan migrant workers are mostly deployed in the Middle East countries of the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Somalia, Kuwait and Qatar.

The government of Uganda according to the labour ministry is signing or reviewing bilateral labour agreements, MoUs on manpower supply with countries of destination. Such partnerships will help Ugandans access external employment that is safe, productive and economically rewarding.