How women plan to recover from the pandemic

“After the birth of our second child, with financial help from my husband, I managed to scrape together Shs5 million which I used to start a business,” she says.

Counting losses

Cherries Boutique prospered for some years, and by the time the country went into lockdown, her business had expanded to include a restaurant, a mobile money stall and a crafts shop. Even with this success, Nalwoga still kept her formal job as an accountant.

“My stock was worth Shs15 million, which came from savings, profits and the loans I had borrowed from six saving schemes. But during lockdown, for five months, we did not go to work. I went back to square one,” she says.

Ever since the lockdown was lifted Nalwoga has been trying to make ends meet. The only ray of hope in the pandemic is that while all her neighbours closed shop, she still opens her business every day. Unfortunately, she has had to lay off four of her employees.

Debt

“I am heavily indebted because I am servicing loans I took from saving schemes. There are almost no customers. Some clients are also struggling financially. I am still paying rent arrears, yet I have to pay salaries for the remaining workers,” she says.

Before the pandemic, Nalwoga contributed to the financial wellbeing of her family. After the organisation she works for downsized its operations and altered terms of payment, her financial contributions at home have since dwindled to nothing.

Recovery

Staying open, with minimal business, is less stressful for some women than closing the business down.

In June last year, in his 16th address to the nation during the lockdown, President Museveni directed the Ministry of Education and Sports and the Ministry of Labour, Gender, and Social Development to register businesspeople who had been affected by the lockdown in order to facilitate them with soft loans to resume their businesses or even to help them start other businesses.  However, many small businesses, like Nalwoga’s business, are yet to benefit from this presidential directive, which has made the recovery process challenging.  However, not all is lost.

Cut down on operating costs

Sheila Agweng, an accountant with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, says minimising operating costs is a sure path to recovery.

“Concentrate on what you need. If you used to be a party animal, now is the time to cut back, and channel that money into your business. If you are renting business space, consider going digital. I know of a company in Kampala that closed its physical offices and now works online,” she says.

Joining the digital world will translate into laying off almost your entire human resource, and invest in one or two delivery people.

“If you have merchandise, instead of renting a commercial space, sacrifice one of the rooms at your home to store the merchandise. Alternatively, your car can serve as a store. When clients call you, you can easily deliver the goods to them. You can also have a boda boda rider on speed dial to do the deliveries,” Agweng advises.

Be honest with your employees

Almost everyone was affected by the pandemic, and this includes business owners and their employees.

Hendricah Nabukwasi, the founder of UKUMBI for Entrepreneurs, a mentoring and coaching programme for SMEs, believes talking to one’s employees about the business struggles is a step in the right direction.

“Covid-19 found me in the middle of starting a new programme. The day we launched the programme, is the day the president announced the lockdown. It was a very difficult time. Most of my partners live abroad in countries that have been ravaged by the virus. They pulled out and advised me to close the programme. This heavily affected our funding,” she says.

Perseverance

Nabukwasi persevered and today her business is still running. “At the start of the lockdown, I convened a meeting and explained to them what was happening and how I was going to adapt to the situation. I asked them for their suggestions and we agreed on a number of things, such as cutting back on expenses, including cutting their salaries. I have a great team. The board of directors too has stood by me,” she says.

Just as business was picking up, the internet shutdown during the general elections in January 2021 almost plunged it back into abyss.

“I run a mentoring and coaching programme for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the fact that we cannot gather in one place is a big challenge. So, we decided to run the programme virtually.  We were just recovering the businesses, then, the government decided to shut down the internet. We lost a lot of money,” Nabukwasi says. Today, Nabukwasi’s business, like others, is slowly rising up from the dust. However, many women with small businesses are now having to deal with the problem of finding resources to boost their businesses.

Funding your business

Miriam Kyasimiires, the proprietor of Kagera Safaris Limited, advises women to look no further than where they started from.

“How did you get finances to start your business? Did you take a loan or you used your savings? Can you still access a loan? Just go back to that place and see how you can start again, because unlike before, you are not starting from scratch. I am aware many people have made losses that it would be better to give up and start on something else,” she says.Joining forces with other women facing the same financial challenges could also speed up the recovery process.

Cooperatives

Sheila Kawamara Mishambi, the executive director of the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), says they are organising women into cooperatives.

“As a group, they can be connected to financers, bulk buyers, and have trainings in financial intelligence. We have approached Opportunity bank and they are willing to look into this matter and to help the women – not as individuals – but as a group. This is the model we adopted after Covid-19 happened. When you are alone, you will not get capital.” she says.

Opportunities

In this model, there are groups that deal in fresh foods, fish, second-hand clothes, and eggs, among other items. A group buys stock in bulk and transports at once to minimise on transport costs.

“It is about building trust and business is picking up for many women. Covid-19 hit the entire world, so women should stopwallowing in pity parties. Let’s pick the pieces and move on. Embrace working communally, rather than individually. I foresee that individual businesses will collapse,” Mishambi says.

EASSI is also encouraging women they work with to embrace e-commerce because business people can no longer afford to wait for customers.

No woman is an island

A business owner cannot survive the pandemic without a support system. Nabukwasi, as a business mentor, says: “Identify a mentor to walk the recovery journey with you. As things are falling apart, you need someone to remind you that your business can still succeed. I have realised women entrepreneurs do not have strong support systems, and because of this, we don’t have access to resources.  We have huge financial gaps because we don’t know where the resources are,” she says.

Nabukwasi urges women to embrace open communication as opposed to riding on emotions. “Tell employees facts about the business,” she says.