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Hands-on training poised to stimulate entrepreneurship in Nakivale
Diana Kruger and Dave Erickson look on during the opening of the Promise Hub facility in Nakivale. Photo by Lawrence Ogwal
What you need to know:
- According to Muvunga, entrepreneurs in Nakivale often face challenges like internet access to reach outside markets or sell products, plus sending products overseas and an inability to receive online payments.
“When jobs are scarce, the most viable solution is to create your own job, to become an entrepreneur,” says Patrick Muvunga Trickpa.
In 2010, Muvunga, like many others in Nakivale Settlement, fled DR Congo at the height of war, and settled at Nakivale. With his entrepreneurial instincts, he searched for opportunities. Muvunga is an artist, painter and muralist.
Muvunga’s dreams got a shot in the arm when he met Diana Krüger and Madelynn Martiniere. They introduced to him the idea of setting up the Promise Hub in Nakivale. Promise Hub traces its birth back to Lebanon.
It was founded in 2016 by world renowned entrepreneurs Dave Erickson and Harald Neidhart. According to Neidhardt, during one of their visits to help refugee centres in Lebanon, a Syrian girl handed them a letter which contained a ‘promise’ to shed the label of refugee and regain her unique identity as a human being.
“We saw in her eyes the passion of a child, the true human spirit. Her call for dignity and claim for humanity provided the grounding spirit for Promise Hub,” he reveals.
They designed it as an innovative e-commerce incubator that provides real tools, training and mentoring, resulting in new local incomes, jobs and the discovery of emerging solutions to local challenges.
On Monday, the first ever Promise Hub was launched in Nakivale, and its aim, according to Erickson, is to be a global access to the internet, tools and encouragement to spark entrepreneurship in Uganda’s oldest Refugee Settlement.
“Instead of people migrating to opportunities, Promise Hub migrates opportunities to people. It establishes incubators where individuals can discover their individual passions and talents, develop their skills and build successful businesses, all over the world in communities where individuals want to rise.”
The hub is a circular facility built out of 20.000 plastic bottles. Inside it are learning centers where residents will be trained in computer literacy, craft making, online trading and others. Below the hub is an amphitheater where residents will hold weekly performing arts exhibitions and competitions to enhance their musical and cultural talents.
How it works
Research shows that six billion people lack access to high speed internet. This is one of the hurdles the Nakivale project is aiming at overcoming. It looks at creating one billion jobs in the next 30 years worldwide.
“We are training local mentors who will pass the knowledge to the learners. We are providing everything they need to create local and online jobs to generate income and strengthen their local community,” added Neidhardt.
The Promise Hub Express, a Speedy Premium Shipping Service, will help locals in selling and shipping their products to the US straight out of Nakivale. Throughout 2019, an online marketplace will be launched and a digital wallet which enables all members to have access to financial services will be implemented.
According to Muvunga, entrepreneurs in Nakivale often face challenges like internet access to reach outside markets or sell products, plus sending products overseas and an inability to receive online payments.
He believes that this is coming to an end, because Promise Hub will be providing entrepreneurs in the refugee settlement a platform to produce and sell their products everywhere in the world, hence improving their financial statuses.
Turning aid into opportunity is the catalyst to create a significant increase in local income, argues Erickson. With this place becoming a centre for collaboration, creative expression, and cross-cultural dialogue, locals expect to gain from the program.
