A study carried out in 57 countries around the world
established that Ugandan women are among the most entrepreneurial in the world.
The 2018 Mastercard Index of Women’s Entrepreneurship
released last week showed that one in three businesses or 33.8 percent of
businesses in this country belong to women. Our women were third behind their
counterparts in Ghana, 44.4 percent and Russia, 34.6 percent.
Survey after survey has shown that Uganda is one of the most
entrepreneurial counties in the world, so it should come as little surprise
that our women are among the most entrepreneurial in the world.
This does not
in any way take away from their own initiative and resilience in surviving our
competitive business environment.
Our entrepreneurialism was forced upon us by the hard times
we faced as a nation in the 1970s and 1980s, when few if any salaries could
carry families through the month. For the majority of us who did not have the
option of leaving the country to greener pastures, we stuck around and hustled
the best we could.
Women saddled with children to nurture, often by themselves, have borne the brunt of the hard times, but as is being recognised now, they
not only survived but have thrived.
As things have improved over the last three decades, these
businesswomen have not just shed their business acumen and returned to regular
jobs but have carried on and grown with the economy.
It is fitting that in this month when we commemorate Women’s
Day, they are being recognised internationally.
Looking around and from my experience, women have been
strong in the Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) section but have struggled to
build their companies beyond this level.
I think this is because as well as being economically active,
they are also mothers, which often acts as a natural barrier to their career or
business advancement.
In addition, while for successful men one can point to a
strong and supportive woman behind them, men do not seem to return the favour,
in being supportive of their women’s ambitions beyond the family.
There are natural and cultural impediments to their
advancement. And not only in Uganda.
In the same Mastercard survey they report that women in
countries such as New Zealand and Portugal struggle, are not well received as
entrepreneurs and struggle to get a bank loans, insurance and trade finance.
We take it for granted in this country, but there are
countries around the world where entrepreneurship is not as widespread, live
alone among women. This a rich resource.
What we should exercise our minds on, is how to sweep away
the barriers that prevent our businessmen and women from attaining their full
potential.
My advice to women and really to all our businessmen, would
be to aspire towards improving the business’ processes and systems as a way to
set themselves up for future growth. A business is never too small or
insignificant to organise.
Their inherent ability to mitigate against risk, which some
call risk aversion, makes women good business bets – they repay their loans and
are trusted partners, which means if they work at formalising their businesses
the sky is the limit.
This report says what I have always known and experienced in
my life. It is no secret that the more empowered the women in a country are the
better the quality of its families, which will inevitably lead to a more
prosperous country.
As a country we should not lose sight of the importance of
this powerful resource.
By elevating women to places of position in politics and
administration, promoting the education of the girl child among other things,
government has done well to create a momentum towards empowering the Ugandan woman.
And this should continue.
At the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSFU) there are
business support programs that our business people can exploit to take them to
the next level and I invite businesswomen to take advantage of these.
I am excited about the latest findings. Not because I did
not know this intuitively, but because of the promise it holds for this
country’s future.
(MARCH 15)
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