Simple Money Skills for Women in Business

Call for Applications

The Problem

Sustainability of businesses in Uganda is bleak – “80-90% of startups fail within the first three years.” Many initiatives intended for income generation fail because they do not achieve their intended objective of generating income surpluses. 

Every farmer is a business person

In rural areas, where the majority of Ugandans live and eke a living from agriculture, almost every peasant farmer is trying to earn a profit, as well as feed his or her family. Many are not succeeding in making profit from farming as a business.

Artisans, Vendors, Hawkers and other micro and small business owners

There are plenty small and medium sized income generation initiatives, particularly so by persons less advantaged and often living in urban centres, the so-called urban poor. They are trying to earn a profit as well as feed their families. Many are not succeeding to make a profit from their businesses.

Government of Uganda programs

Such as the on-going Parish Development Model, are focused on facilitating smallholder farming households and small business owners to establish and operate viable income generating activities; but with insufficient success.

The Cause

According to an article, “The Silent Killers of Business,” published in Monitor, a major ‘killer of businesses’ is the business owner’s “failure to separate personal finances from business finances.”

Certainly, without proper financial records it is hard for a business owner to separate personal from business expenditure. And worse more, it is hard for a business owner to establish if the business is eating into the owner’s personal finances and making the owner poorer instead.

Indeed, a major reason as to why income generating activities are not succeeding is because the initiators and owners of those activities do not take the time to set up and maintain the necessary financial records.  

It is surprising how many people in Uganda do not keep some form of record of their income and expenditure. Many do not appreciate that every person responsible for themselves and or a household is necessarily a business person; and who needs to have useful financial records for decision making.

It is so bad to the extent that in Uganda, the culture of issuing payment vouchers and receipts is not widely practised. Few in Uganda insist on being given a receipt for all their purchases. It is the norm, in fact, to expect not to be issued a receipt.

If you are trying to run a small business, not issuing payment vouchers, not receiving receipts; and not keeping records for your finances, can be disastrous for you and your business; hence the high failure rate of 80-90% of startups.

The Solution

All Ugandans should learn some form of financial record keeping, financial report generation and analysis – simple money skills for everyday business.

• How can you keep good records of your finances (books of accounts)? 
• How can you generate reports about your finances? 
• How can you use the reports about your finances to make decisions?

The CPAR Financial Management Training Course, implemented under the Dr. Paul Hargrave Memorial Centre Human Development Project, will provide you with answers to such questions and more. It will equip you with skills and knowledge for effectively managing your finances; therefore, better income generation; therefore, better income; therefore, improved household standards of living.

We are grateful for the funding support that is making it possible for us to provide much needed financial literacy services. We pray for your continued support. Thank you!

Links:

• Call for Applicants for Money Skills for Business Training

“For me, I live in my mother’s household with our family. Medication is expensive and sometimes we even fail to cover our medical costs, let alone cost of education.” In her voice and in her words, she shared the reason why living conditions of her household need attention and improvement on a fairly wide scale.

Her household does not live a good quality of life, she shared, because they:

• Do not save for investment and if they do it is not sufficient.
• Are not members of a saving club or group and if they are, their participation and savings amount individually and as a group are insufficient.
• Have insufficient viable income generating activities from which they hardly get paid dividends, if at all.

“Within our household and our wider community, there is little investment, which needs a bigger capital boost. Members of my family save little. There is shortage of capital to remit savings and this is the reason many shy away from being members of a savings club or group. There is a need for formation of savings groups or clubs in my area. In terms of income generating activities, the ones that we have, we cannot depend on. Worse more, we are discouraged from investing group income generating activities, because there are a lot of irregularities in sharing profits.”

In her voice, in her family’s voice, in her community’s voice she told her story. Her journey is among the reasons why she responded to our call for youth to submit their motivation statements as applications to our Youth Media Training. She is among those who were selected and is currently in training.

During the baseline survey, she shared her story and so did her fellow youth, male and female, from all over Greater Northern Uganda, under training and mentorship at our Dr. Paul Hargrave Memorial Centre in Lira City. They indicated that the situation in their respective households and wider communities on matters savings and investment needs attention.

Her journey, their journey, training to become media change agents, is an opportunity for them to acquire life skills, a craft, which can enable them to earn a living. Against all odds, they persevere. They are burdened with the knowledge that even when they complete their training, in order to make it as professional journalists, photographers, videographers, storytellers of all kinds, they will need significant start up or booster capital.

These youth, media change agents in training, from disadvantaged backgrounds, from households with insufficient savings for investment, will need to find capital for investment. To buy the necessary equipment and gadgets for their trade. An appropriate basic camera used by professionals, for starters, costs at least Ug. Shillings 2,000,000 (about US$ 552). Small loans in Uganda, either by banks, if at all, but mostly now by mobile phone companies are given at usurious rates and for very short periods.

In many communities in Greater Northern Uganda, there is, indeed, an urgent need for community owned loan funds, through which members can save and access loans for investment. This is a clear lesson from her story, told in her voice, in the voice of her family and in the voice of her community. Her story, in fact, likely holds true for many in other parts of her country too.

From her story and the testimonies of media change agents in training, it is evident that they, the youth in training, and other members of their communities, need skilling in financial management and income generation.Together, little by little, we can support her dream of becoming an effective media change agent who advocates for her community; amplifying her voice and the voices of her community for the greater good.

Please consider making a donation in support of young women from disadvantaged backgrounds and yet inspiringly resilient. Your donation, will enable them to access loans for investment and to become self-reliant enterprenuers. Yes, your gift will be a gift that keeps on giving.

Thank you!

Links:

• Discussion of baseline survey results on quality of life
• A bit about youth media change agents in training