Govt to support women business with grants and seed capital

_____________

WAKISO - It was jubilation mixed with ululation as hundreds of female trainees from Gudie Leisure Farm in Wakiso were promised grants and seed capital to boost their businesses.

This was revealed by the state minister for gender, labor, and social development, Hon Betty Amongi on Thursday 25th April 2024 while passing out the group of women at Gudie Leisure Farm in Wakiso.

Addressing the 146 women from five refuge hosting districts of Kikuube, Isingiro, Kamwenge, Adjuman, and Madi Okollo, Amongi said this is an opportunity for women to better and position themselves as entrepreneurs in places they come from.

“The women we are passing out today are refugees, while others are coming from refugee-hosting communities where they have businesses, and today we are sending out better entrepreneurs,” she said.

Amongi, however, asked women to take the skills they have gained under the Grow project seriously, as these could be the turning points for their families in terms of business growth and enterprise.

She further explained that Gudie Leisure Farm is an incubation center where women with a passion for poultry can gain the best training when it comes to poultry keeping.

Gudula Naiga Basaza, the director at Gudie Leisure Farm, said they have trained women for four weeks in poultry feed making and poultry management, which she believes will help them generate income when they go back home.

During her speech, Dr. Ruth Aisha Musoke Biyinzika, the Grow Project coordinator, advised women to register their businesses with the Uganda Registrations Services Bureau (URSB) at no cost, as this will help them tap into more business opportunities.
 
“The Grow Project has a window where all women with unregistered businesses are carrying out registration, courtesy of the Grow Project,” she said.

Biyinzika also noted that trainees from all other districts and regions are to be awarded working tools such as ovens and seed capital to run their businesses.

“We also encourage women to form groups where they will be given loans at an interest rate of 10% annually to help them grow their businesses from micro to small and from small to medium enterprises,” she said.

The Grow Project is a five-year government of Uganda project funded by the World Bank through the Ministry of gender, labor, and Social Development and implemented by the private sector foundation of Uganda.