By Nyanzi Martin Luther *
Uganda is not behind because its children are incapable or because its young entrepreneurs are lazy. We are behind because too often, those who make the rules look at a new idea with suspicion before asking how it can be made to work. That attitude has consequences, and it is visible in Parliament, in schools and in the way we talk about young people trying to build businesses.
We have become very good at identifying what could go wrong. What we are not always good at is designing practical ways to prevent those problems while still allowing people to benefit from new opportunities. The debate over phones in schools is a good example.
There are genuine concerns. Phones can distract students and expose children to pornography, gambling, cyberbullying and other harmful content. These risks should not be ignored, but identifying a problem should be the beginning of a policy discussion, not the end of it.
If schools are worried about students using phones during lessons, there are practical solutions. Schools can provide secure lockers or designated storage areas where phones are kept during class and accessed only at approved times. Teachers can incorporate digital devices into specific lessons where appropriate, while school networks can be filtered and students taught how to use technology responsibly. We can control the risks without pretending that technology itself is the problem.
France provides an example worth examining. Its digital regulator, Arcom, requires pornography websites accessible in France to implement effective age-verification systems to prevent minors from accessing adult content, with regulatory action possible against platforms that fail to comply. Uganda does not have to copy France’s system exactly, but the principle is important.
If pornography is the concern, regulate access to pornography. If gambling platforms are the concern, regulate gambling. If cyberbullying is the problem, strengthen reporting and enforcement. If students using phones during lessons is the concern, establish clear rules on when and where phones can be used. The answer to every digital problem cannot simply be to take the device away.
That matters because Uganda says it wants young people prepared for a digital economy. We cannot tell students that technology is the future while treating the technology they already have as an enemy. There is also a more fundamental problem: many schools still lack the infrastructure needed to make digital education meaningful, including reliable electricity, computers and internet access.
A 2026 assessment found that only a minority of secondary schools surveyed were considered ICT-ready, while a significant number remained completely unplugged. Parliament has also raised concerns about ICT infrastructure, connectivity and computer laboratories in schools. The national debate, therefore, should not only be about whether a student should carry a phone; it should address the bigger question of what kind of education system Uganda is building for the economy its children will enter.
The same negative attitude appears when we talk about young entrepreneurs. We often expect a young person who has just started a company to immediately perform like an organisation that has spent decades building capital, reputation, employees, customers and networks. A young person starts a television channel today and people ask why it is not already competing with NTV; someone starts a new business and is judged against companies that have operated for 20 or 30 years.
That comparison is unfair. A business does not acquire experience overnight, and neither capital, trust nor customers are built instantly. Mistakes are part of the process, and experience comes from learning from them. If we genuinely want young Ugandans to become entrepreneurs, we must give them room to grow.
That does not mean lowering standards. Young businesses must obey the law, remain accountable to customers and employees, meet their obligations and operate professionally. But we must recognise the difference between failure and simply being at the beginning. A company that is six months old cannot reasonably be expected to have the institutional strength of one that has existed for 30 years.
Yet our public conversation sometimes treats that difference as evidence that young people are incapable, discouraging precisely the people we claim we want to empower. Uganda needs young people who are willing to try. Some of their businesses will fail, others will survive and a few may eventually become major institutions. That is how entrepreneurship works.
Every established company was once small, every experienced entrepreneur was once inexperienced and every major institution once had a beginning. If we keep telling young people that their beginnings are inadequate because they do not immediately resemble someone else’s finished product, we should not be surprised when fewer people are willing to start.
This is where Parliament’s responsibility becomes particularly important. Lawmakers should not only ask, “What could go wrong?” They should also ask, “How can we make this work safely?” That is the difference between restriction and regulation, and between fear and leadership.
Good policy does not pretend risks do not exist. It identifies them, measures them and builds systems to manage them. That requires research and consultation with teachers, parents, students, technology experts, entrepreneurs and child-protection specialists. It also requires lawmakers to look beyond the easiest political response, which is often simply to ban something.
But banning is not always solving. If we ban phones without improving digital education, we have not necessarily prepared students for the digital world. If we discourage young businesses because they are not immediately as successful as established companies, we have not created more successful entrepreneurs. If we recognise that children can access harmful material online but do nothing to make platforms responsible for protecting minors, we have not solved the underlying problem; we have merely shifted responsibility.
Uganda does not need leaders who are blind to the dangers of modern life. It needs leaders confident enough to manage those dangers. Anyone can point at a phone and say it is dangerous, look at a young entrepreneur and say he or she lacks experience, or list all the reasons a new idea might fail. Leadership begins with the harder question: How do we make it work?
That is the question Uganda should be asking more often. When a young person wants to start a company, we should ask how the regulatory and financial environment can help that company grow responsibly. When students need technology, we should ask how it can be introduced safely. When children are exposed to harmful online content, we should ask how platforms can be held accountable. When schools lack modern learning equipment, we should ask how the transition can be financed.
When something genuinely dangerous emerges, Uganda should regulate it intelligently rather than automatically treating every new development as a threat. The country’s future will not be secured by pretending modern technology does not exist, nor will it be secured by allowing everything without rules. The better path is responsible freedom, intelligent regulation and confidence in young people.
Uganda’s children do not need a country that ignores danger. They need a country capable of solving problems without turning every new possibility into a threat. Uganda’s lag is not destiny, but if negativity remains the default response to innovation, the country risks creating the very backwardness it complains about. Uganda can choose differently.
*Ugandan businessman and advocate
