Prime
Women entrepreneurs oppose precondition to access funds
Trade minister Amelia Kyambadde (right) addresses the women’s business conference as Uganda Women Network executive director Rita Aciro Lakor looks on at Golf Course Hotel, Kampala on Tuesday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN WANDERA
What you need to know:
Condition. Women are told to form groups if they are to get funds from government programmes.
Kampala. A section of civil society and women entrepreneurs are opposed to conditions requiring women to form groups before accessing the economic empowerment funds.
The Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Fund, also known as Women Empowerment Fund, is an initiative by government to get women out of poverty.
During a high-level national forum on women, trade and economic justice held in Kampala early this week, it was revealed that women are being forced into forming groups that they do not necessarily believe in before being advanced the revolving funds.
About Shs43billion was allocated last financial year for this purpose although just about half of it was released by the ministry of Finance.
Speaking to Daily Monitor, Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET) executive director Rita Aciro Lakor said they have received complaints from different women about being compelled into forming groups as a precondition for funding under the women empowerment programme.
She said: “Women have told us that they don’t want to be forced into groups because they may not necessarily share the same vision although they are in the same line of business.”
She added: “We think that condition should be reviewed and women should be able to access the revolving funds individually.”
According to the managing director of CPAR Uganda, a not-for-profit development organisation, Ms Norah Owaraga, it is wrong for women to be forced into a group for the purpose of accessing financial services.
Ms Alexandra Miwanda Bagenda, an entrepreneur (Reticia Products), said in most cases, women prefer to do their business alone saying the condition of accessing the revolving fund in a group is unfair.
She said: “Interests and vision differ though you are all involved in the same business which is a requirement of the programme. Some of us do not think about the money in the initial stages so why force us into groups?”
She added: “I will never do that group thing.”
In his remarks after presenting a report about situating women’s rights in the current economic context and trade policy in Uganda; opportunities and barriers to gender equality, Dr Fred Muhumuza, an Economics lecturer at Makerere School of Economics, said this arrangement suits the lender rather than the borrower.
According to Dr Muhumuza, the arrangement of compelling women into forming groups does not help the borrowers, in this case the struggling women, but safeguards the interests of government against defaulting on loans.
The idea is that once they come together, they will watch over each other and ensure that a defaulting member is tracked down and brought to book. The problem with the model, however, is that it does not take into account individual interests and visions that, often times are not compatible with the group’s overall agenda.
When the matter was brought to the Trade minister Amelia Kyambadde, she admitted that women prefer to work (do business) alone, saying she is open for guidance on how this can be addressed, although she urged women to rise above self-pity and fight for their rightful place in society.
The fund
How it works. In a bid to economically empower women, government rolled out a revolving fund (Women Empowerment Fund) where women groups can borrow from and invest in enterprises of their choice.
It requires that women form a group of between 10 and 15 people to qualify for funding.
Last financial year, about Shs24 billion was released for the programme, instead of Shs43b that was promised for funding women enterprises.
