By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
Many women entrepreneurs across the country are applying to benefit from GROW loans initiative, experts said.
The revelation was made by the Chief Executive Director, Stephen Asiimwe during a women beneficiaries engagement meeting at Hotel Africana Kampala on Friday.
“For the first time in history, the demand is bigger than supply, and that’s a good problem. Previously, and I do not mean to criticize any program, funds would sit unused because no one was accessing them. Now, for the first time, demand has exceeded supply,” he said.
Asiimwe further revealed that 2073 women across the country have accessed GROW loans by January 30, 2025. He noted that Grow project is the only program that has grown more traction in Uganda, pledging to support more women entrepreneurs in micro businesses to grow from micro to small to medium, and medium to large businesses.
“It’s with pleasure that we have reached every corner of this country with this grow support, we will be conducting a series of more assessments to support financially our women in business,” he said
Financed by the World Bank to the tune of $217 million USD, the Grow project is aiming to increase access to entrepreneurial services that enable female entrepreneurs growing their businesses. The project is expected to benefit about 35,000 micro and 4,000 small women enterprises respectively, and create more than 295,000 direct jobs and 1,180,000 indirect jobs.
Asiimwe added that the government has disbursed Shs50.96b through the six financial institutions partnering with PSFU to extend Grow Financial Facilities to women entrepreneurs. He said that Centenary Bank and Finance Trust Bank have received the largest share of the funds, Shs12b each, followed by Post Bank at Shs11.8b and DFCU Bank 7.8b, Stanbic 4.5b and Equity Bank at 1.8b as of January 30.
He expressed commitment to increase beneficiaries of grow loans for Centenary and Finance Trust banks in the greater Kampala Metropolitan areas, adding that they will expand the initiative to other parts of the country.
Speaking during the meeting, the minister of gender labour and social development, Hon. Betty Amongi said many women in Uganda are owning businesses, highlighting the need for more initiatives like Grow project to boost female-run businesses.
“When you look at data, many women are into business. 64% working women are independent workers, with 56% operating as own-account workers, but only 8% operate businesses and employ other people,” she said.
The minister urged women entrepreneurs to not only consider acquiring loans as capital to start up their projects but also to engage in other GROW components such as trainings in partner institutions like Makerere University, MUBS to learn new knowledge and skills in book keeping, business incubation, business registrations and certification of their products among others.
