270 Women to Benefit from American Entrepreneurial Programme

270 women are to benefit from the American Entrepreneurial Programme.

The programme is run by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs as part of the White House’s Global Development and Prosperity initiative.

The participants were chosen from Kampala Omoro, Kitgum, Nwoya and Pader districts and will undergo a 13 module online business course that is designed to help them grow their small business ventures.

 As part of the course, the women will be taught how to identify good business ideas, marketing and advertising, how to write a business plan and how to apply for a loan from financial institutions.

Fiona Luswata, the country coordinator of the AWE program says that the program is aimed at helping women who already have small business run them better and give them a bigger and better shelf life.

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Over 100 million shillings has been injected in the program by the White House led Global Development and Prosperity Initiative.

The course will be taught over a period of four months and supervisory visits carried out every two weeks to check on the progress of the participants. At the end of the four months, the women will receive certificates. The best five will receive capital from the organizers of the program to add into their businesses.

Luswata says the money will be given to participants who show growth during the four-month program. Luswata, however, declined to disclose the amount of money.

“At the end of that time, we expect all our participants to be able to write a business plan and this will be the main aspect we shall lock at to measure a participant’s growth. Participants with the best business plans will receive funding,” Luswata says.

While officiating the opening of the programme on Thursday at the American Center in Kampala, US ambassador Deborah Malac said that the American people were excited by the group because it is going to give women the chance to compete favourably in the business sector.

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Uganda is one of 26 countries in the world that is participating in the programme.  The program will also take place in other countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa.

On the African continent, some of the countries that have already begun running the program include- Kenya and Tanzania.

Hellen Machika, the director of Feed All (U) Limited- a company that deals in supplying vegetable seedling says that she hopes she will be able to improve on record keeping.

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Carol Mumba, the proprietor of Akari Natural Spices says that at the end of the four months, she wants to be able to market business better so that it can have more visibility than it is currently.

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