Women's Katale focus on outgrowing subsistence business

The Women's Katale started over the weekend in Kampala in the company of the Minister for Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs, Minsa Kabanda.

Speaking during the opening, Kabanda said that Uganda has made great strides in gender equality but more effort is required to skill women in order to close the jobs gap and gender skills.

“Women-owned businesses are small and less productive. We need to explore how businesses can grow from subsistence to industrial, sustainable and productive. Let us start with training and equipping them to compete favourably,” she said.

Women's Katale is an initiative of the Private Sector Foundation (PSFU) aimed at addressing business challenges including lack of funding, unsupportive business conditions and structural barriers, by creating a space for women entrepreneurs to upskill.

It also seeks to enhance competition and visibility of women-business around the country.

This is the second edition of the PSFU women's katale, the first was held in Luweero District last year.

According to a 2021 study, 38.4 percent of businesses in Uganda are owned by women.

According to Stephen Asiimwe, the PSFU executive director, over 1,000 entrepreneurs wanted to participate but only 250 were chosen.

He said “the concept gives women a chance to learn, showcase, and market their businesses,” because it converges business clinics to equip women with skills and regulatory requirements. These business clinics are facilitated by agencies and companies such as the Uganda Revenue Authority, Uganda Registration Services Bureau, Uganda National Bureau of Standards, banks and personal care products manufacturers, among others.

The PSFU chief of programmes and projects officer Damali Ssali said they plan to make Katale a regional programme starting in western, then northern and finalising in eastern Uganda.

“We want to impact women from all over Uganda through regional markets. We are also conceptualising a digital women entrepreneurs’ marketplace that will always be open,” she said.