Handle GROW project better than before

There has been quite a buzz around the Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) project launched recently.

GROW project is a Government of Uganda initiative that arose out of the need to respond to the needs of women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses, sustain their self-employment and create more jobs.

The project development objective is to increase access to entrepreneurial services that enable female entrepreneurs to grow their enterprises in targeted locations, including in refugee-hosting districts.

Funded by the World Bank and implemented by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), the project aims to help women grow their businesses from micro to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In total, there is a $217m (Shs802b) grant from the World Bank for its five-year duration.

The loans will target 60,000 women-owned businesses, including 3,000 owned by refugees. Up to 280,000 are targeted in terms of a ripple effect.

Women entrepreneurs can access loans from five selected commercial banks: dfcu, Equity, Finance Trust Bank, Centenary Bank, and Post Bank, each of which has received Shs22.5b to lend to women entrepreneurs.

To qualify for the loan, women must own at least 51 percent of their enterprise. Loan amounts range from Shs4 million to Shs200m, repayable within two years at competitive interest rates of 10.5 percent and 10 percent, depending on the bank’s terms.

Additionally, beneficiaries who repay their loans on time will receive a grant of up to five percent of the loan principal. This makes for glossy reading but the reality with many government projects with the same intention is different.

Right from the 1990s, there has been continuous rolling out of programmes whose overall intention is to reduce the levels of poverty and support start-ups. Which one of those do you remember vividly?

None of these initiatives can claim to have registered commendable success or excellence. This has to be different. PSFU has to intensify its education of the beneficiaries to ably manage the funds.

Everyone must view this as a debt they must pay back and not a grant. The aim is to enable the businesses to thrive and not just the implementation of sanctions.

If the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development does not go further than the launch and effective monitoring, GROW will be another project in the graveyard of good documents.