SUPPORT MICRO SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN UGANDA

Fifteen young women have started micro enterprises with a small capital as low as 50 US dollars. In Uganda many young women are typically jobless. Many of them are house wives without any income. Many young women in Uganda face significant, structural barriers to accessing capital for starting micro-enterprises, despite owning approximately 39% of businesses in the country. While they exhibit high entrepreneurial spirit, they often receive less than 10% of formal credit from financial institutions. Kigezi Healthcare foundation has embarked on supporting some of these young women with an initial capital of only 50 US dollars. Most of them have developed their micro business to a capital of between 100 and 500 US dollars. This is quite impressive and we shall continue writing about their success stories. They buy agricultural produce from farmers and take to the market. Some of them sell from door to door in urban centres.

 Cultural and social norms are Deep-rooted gender norms often limit women's control over property, land, and decision-making power, which prevents them from using family assets to secure loans. Young women often bear the primary responsibility for household and childcare, reducing the time they can devote to building business creditworthiness. Beyond cash, there is a shortage of training in business management, financial literacy, and record-keeping, with 88% of women in some studies citing this as a key limitation. Women face bias from financial institutions, which can result in unfair evaluations of their business potential.