UGANDA: Women Making Big Strides in Business

Along the dusty Masajja Road is Rukia Nakimuli's makeshift kiosk. In there is a mini-fridge stocked with soft drinks. In another corner is a board holding different mobile phone chargers, which she uses to pool resources through charging people's cell phones.

On the wall adjacent Ms Nakimuli displays mobile phone accessories, which make part of her business. Her stock also has a counter with three landline sets of Uganda Telecom, MTN and I-Telecom, which she uses as public pay-phones. For the last five years this has been Nakimuli's place of work ever since she lost her husband who was the sole bread-winner.

A mother of two-Nakimuli says: “By the time my husband died, I was a mere house-wife. He held almost all responsibilities on his shoulders.” “I had to think of something to bring me some income, which I would use to pay rent and feed my family.” She says with the little savings accumulated by her husband before he died, she constructed a kiosk, which she stocked with a fridge from her home to start a soft drinks business.”

Five-years down the road, Nakimuli has secured a piece of land and her business has grown with a return on investment of about Shs300,000 per month. She says she will soon set up a permanent shop on the piece of land that she acquired so that she can expand her business.

Nakimuli's entrepreneurship journey is a mirror image of how women in Uganda and Africa in general- are plotting to succeed even in the face of huge economic and cultural challenges.
With more responsibilities shifting to the women folks these says, business has become the only alternative upon which they can turn to make ends meet.

In recent years, business, a territory dominated by men has seen more women rise into the business ranks and becoming more successful than earlier thought. During a recent business clinic conducted by Enterprise Uganda in Kampala, women put in a spirited participation, which is an indication they (women) are not only itching to succeed in business but are ready to stand up to challenge. Analysts say women are increasingly becoming independent as men abandon their traditional roles of providing for their families. This has left women with no alternative but to get up to the challenge.

During an interview in Kampala recently, Mr John Muhimbise, a consultant with Apex Business Skills told Smart Money: “Now days more women are venturing into business than before.”
He says the tight job market has left business as the only viable alternative for women, who also make up majority of Uganda's population. However, he interestingly notes that many of these businesses are financed by men.

Experts also argue that women are becoming more confident as a result of education thus the fear to venture into business is decreasing by the day. Mr Charles Ocici, the executive director of Enterprise Uganda, recently said that many women who started small just a few years ago have grown into accomplished business personalities.

Ms Halima Mwanje, a hair dresser who owns a successful saloon in Kabalagala, a Kampala suburb told Smart Money last week, that she ventured into this business because the five years she had spent working in a restaurant had not improved her life in anyway.
She said she needed to raise her income so as to meet her needs and improve the quality of her life.

Ms Mwanje, says she makes between Shs200,000 and Shs300,000 per week and during peak seasons (festive seasons) the amount can double. However during her time at the restaurant she would only earn a monthly salary of Shs120,000. “I can only see myself expanding my business and not going into employment again,” she says.

Similarly Ms Jovial Tushabe, who can only boost of a few years in school, has managed to look after her family over the years off a restaurant that she owns in Kampala.
Five years ago, after Tushabe lost her husband her relatives pressured her to retire to the village; however she could not take any of this. She started a restaurant that has since grown to serve about 50 people in a day. The pressure on the job market has forced many women to struggle for their survival. It has also boosted by a crop of educated women personalities who have taken on business as a profession.

Dr Maggie Kigozi the Uganda Investment Authority - Women Entrepreneurs Network (UIA-WEN) patron says: “Women entrepreneurs in Uganda have driven economic growth through innovations, creating jobs, improving food security and family prosperity.” She says: “Uganda needs to unleash women's untapped potential to scale up enterprise development in the country's prosperity programmes.” This explains why many forums are being formed as a way of promoting the role of women's entrepreneurship development (WED) in national development.

A woman home business website that delivers tools, information and inspiration for women entrepreneurs says for a business to be successful, the following need to be put in practice.
* Think success
* Be passionate with what you do
* Focus on your strengths
* Never consider the possibility of failure
* Plan accordingly
* Work hard and smart!
* Constantly look for ways to network
* Willingness to learn
* Persevere and have faith
* Discipline yourself