UGANDA: Readying Women for Gainful Role as Entrepreneurs

Kampala. The tendency for women to lag behind in most developing societies, still lingers on and this extends to the area of economic empowerment.

This happens in a number of ways including lack of up-to-date knowledge and skills to grow their businesses yet those who have brilliant ideas never live to see them turn into actual businesses. This, in a way has seen many would be promising women businesses stagnate as others collapse.

In a bid to close this gap, ICON Women and Young People's Leadership Academy, Uganda, in partnership with Foundation for Community Development (FDC), Mozambique, have set up a ‘Uganda Network of Women Entrepreneurs' which is an intergenerational mentoring platform for social and business entrepreneurs.
In an interview with Smart Money recently, Ms Deborah Kaddu-Serwadda, the ICON director, said: “So out of this experience we have come up with a formal space which is going to act as a platform for intergeneration mentoring of women, social and business entrepreneurs

She added: “A year ago we needed to formalise those social and business innovators because some of the things that are very important to our work encourage an entrepreneurial spirit among young people and women.
“We refer to this as intergeneration space because we are cognizant of the reality that apart from the fact that there are differences in age, we can bring these people together to share different experiences,” Ms Kaddu said.
This is going to be advocacy in the private sector, which is more socially engaged in the social transformation of our country and giving a bit of first aid treatment.

This space has been formalised by ICON to facilitate shared learning from the social and business sector, in such a way that women entrepreneurs grow and in turn mentor others.
Ms Kaddu added that with support from the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), women will enjoy the benefits of interacting with one another for free through the Uganda Network of Women Entrepreneurs.
The main beneficiaries include women entrepreneurs practicing large, medium and small scale businesses, and professional women interested in business, aspiring business entrepreneurs, young women in tertiary education institutions and young female graduates.

Dr Maggie Kigozi, the executive director of Uganda investment Authority, who was the guest speaker said: “Women entrepreneurs in Uganda drive economic growth through innovating and creating jobs, besides maintain the food security and prosperity of families. But Uganda as a nation we need to unleash women's untapped economic potential to scale up enterprise development in its prosperity for all programmes.”
“This means using networking forums like the UNWE that is encouraging women to think and act in enterprising ways, grabbing opportunities, organising resources, and turning ideas into reality,” she added.