Close to 200 women attend the Rising Woman business skills workshops in Ishaka

Dfcu Bank in partnership with Monitor Publications Limited’s (MPL) flagship brand Monitor and Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) have kicked off countrywide business skilling mentorship workshops under the ‘Rising Woman’ initiative.

The initiative was launched in 2018 under the theme ‘Taking your business ahead’ and is meant to recognize, celebrate and promote a culture of mentorship among women in business in Uganda. It is run under Dfcu Banks’ ‘Women in Business programme’ which started in 2007 and targets Ugandan business women, SMEs among others.

“This training is very important to women because we learn things that help us in developing our businesses. We will be able to leave this place with knowledge on how to work with government, and customer care in the right and legally acceptable business practices. This should keep happening because as women it will help us develop” said forty-year-old Winnie Aryatuha from Katerera Rubirizi district.

Ms. Aryatuha is among over 200 women entrepreneurs turned for a two-day business training in Ishaka District at Crane Resort Hotel on Wednesday July 11 and Thursday July 11, 2019. The training marks, the beginning of several other training sessions that will be undertaken across the country in the next four months.

Women make up 52.5 per cent of the labour force and are an important pool of potential talent to help Uganda meet its development goals, especially in the areas of entrepreneurship and SMEs growth.

However, it is generally known that women face more challenges than men in starting, managing and growing their enterprises as they are more likely to be inhibited by a lack of the necessary skills and resources as well as established cultural norms and attitudes about women’s roles in society.

Just as one of the attendees’ asserts, “This training is very beneficial to women because most of us usually are left out of business planning and implementation of business activities when our husbands are trying to put up those businesses. Women are considered only in operating businesses of our husbands but not in real sourcing of funds, goods. When such trainings are in place, we shall be able to know how to do business,” said Monica Kebirungi Ahimbisibwe from Bushenyi town.

The training focuses on among others: Basic business skills; business planning; enterprise management, positioning for access to credit and marketing. This initiative seeks to create a supportive environment for women’s entrepreneurship as a key driver for success.

Women entrepreneurs are also encouraged to participate in proposal writing which is now open and runs up to 20th September 2019.  The top 3 winners will win Shs15 million, Shs10 million and Shs5 million respectively. The Top 10 will go on an all-expense paid study excursion in Nairobi in January 2020.