Why growth of women in business has remained a challenge in Uganda

According to the 2020 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE), Uganda comes top with 39.6% women-owned businesses, Botswana comes in second place (38.5%) and Ghana is third on the list (36.5%).  

However, most women in Uganda have remained poor and less financially empowered.

So, what could be the problem?

BUT ACCORDING TO EXPERTS AND STAKEHOLDERS, access to credit has continued to frustrate many women who can’t access banks due to a lack of collateral.

Ms Betty Aol, former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, blames the slow progress among women in Uganda on lack of funds to finance self-help projects.

According to Ms Aol, although the country has got a large number of women in influential positions than ever before, less can be achieved without funds.

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“It’s the women council that can mobilise at grass root, however much strong I may be but without these people, we people at the top we can’t do much. I pray that they are given a reasonable budget to cater for their needs,” she says.”

— Betty Aol Ocean, Politician

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Ms Flavia Kabahenda, the chairperson of the Gender Committee of Parliament, says most of the women are largely operating in the informal sector with limited finances.

“If we have to empower women, we need someone to look at how they work. The unique nature of women in entrepreneurship needs to be tackled as majority of them are into the informal sector with small enterprises,” she says.

According to Mr Abbey Mutumba, a lecturer at Makerere University Business School, women are engulfed in a number of challenges that veer them from business growth.

He admits that recording transactions in their own circumstances without necessarily having an accountant is a huge hurdle.

“They lack simple record keeping where they have documents like receipts and vouchers so that when they are negotiating for a contract, they have a record of defence, that justifies their capacity to supply or deliver. If they need a loan, they have a record that shows that,” he says.

According to a 2020 World Bank report, the Covid-19 shock has had detrimental impacts on women’s livelihoods and has increased their unpaid care work.

“Because they tend to work in more vulnerable jobs and sectors, such as services and agriculture, women were the first to stop working during the COVID-19 crisis,” the World Bank.

This is further supported by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS 2018) who add that that came amid a context in which the average woman’s earnings were already only half that of a man’s and when labour force participation was already declining— from 90 percent in 2012 to 75 percent in 2016, compared with 90 to 80 percent among men.

Although rates of entrepreneurism among women are relatively high in Uganda, women-owned businesses tend to be smaller, located in more vulnerable sectors, and earn 30 percent less in profits than firms owned by males.

According to the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), a regional NGO, median monthly earnings among women are Shs120,000 compared with Shs240,000 among men.

Even before the pandemic, field estimates suggested that Ugandan women spent three-and-a-half times more time on unpaid care work than men did At the same time, women’s care responsibilities increased as schools closed and ill household members needed care

In line with the International Women’s Day 2022 campaign theme; ‘Break the Bias,’ activists want more efforts directed towards addressing gender inequality.

Ms Priscilla Nabatanzi, a project officer at Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), says while there are some deliberations made by the government in promoting gender inclusion, only a few are benefiting from the development programs.

“Some of the government programs are ceremonial and benefit other people than the direct beneficiaries of those particular interventions. Sometimes it’s also the system. Uganda is a very corrupt country; people are not having that heart of caring for ‘Ubuntu’ or humanity. We tend to focus on ourselves, families, and stomachs. So, we end up not helping the other person in need,” Ms Nabatanzi says.

She adds that alongside giving them information, it’s equally important to interest women in acquiring skills like tailoring catering, among others, for survival.

Ms Victoria Ssekitoleko,  a former Agriculture Minister and Vice Chairperson Board of Directors at Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), believes a robust transformation targeting the value chain addition for all products that get to the market will boost profits of women and widen the market for the products.

The Financial Literacy Programme rolled out by Equity Bank targeting the women and youth groups is among the many financial interventions rolled out by the private sector and financial institutions to empower and support business growth among women.

“The women and youth groups after undergoing the financial literacy training have accessed unsecured loans payable in a period of one and half years. We realized that many women including the youth are unable to have collateral for loans. This explains why we have the unsecured loan services,” Ms Annet Nakigudde, the Head Micro Sector at Equity Bank, explains in an interview.

Ms Sylvia Pimera, an official from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, says government has made strides towards breaking the different biases imposed against women that hinder them from prospering.

The Government of Uganda has put in place several programmes to improve empowerment of women. They are the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Program (UWEP), Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP), Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE); as well as investment in infrastructure that is benefiting women in rural areas and the Presidential Initiative of Skilling the Girl child.

She notes that strides have been made to have more women in leadership positions.

But Ms Pimela admits that challenges still exist.

“And then education-wise, there’s still a lag despite the 1.5 points that we have for girls entering the university. However, economically, we have had a specific interest; paying special attention to women to join the government programs. When you look at the youth livelihood programme, there’s a percentage to ensure that for any one group to get resources, there should be women in those groups,” she says.

Ms Patricia Munaabi, the executive director of Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) – a women’s rights organisation that has made efforts in bridging the gender gap for 27 years, says progress has been made but a lot more needs to be done.

“Our country has a good policy framework in relation to gender equality. The issue is in implementation. It’s important that this is addressed. It is important to acknowledge the process so far but remind ourselves that there is more to be done. We also have male allies interested in seeing a change in the lives of women, a lot of progress has been made, but the gaps are still major,” she explains.