The World Bank has earmarked shs 814b to promote enterprise development among women for the next financial year. The programme will be championed by both the ministries of gender and local government and is expected to commence early next year.
Emmanuel Omene, the principal economist at the ministry of gender, Labour and social development said the Growing opportunities for Women enterprises programme, will focus on three systematic areas including women’s empowerment and enterprise development, access to finance for women’s enterprises and enabling infrastructure to support the skills of women.
“This money has been put in place to ensure women can be able to empower themselves economically without anyone’s assistance and I think you can now testify on how the government is enhancing national development through lobbying for funds,” he added.
Omene said groups of about 5 to 10 women shall be formed at a district level and under the watch of the community development officers, (CDOs). All CDOs in the country are to ensure full recovery of funds from government programs including the Youth Livelihood Fund and the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP). So far, UWEP has financed 14,126 women projects countrywide with 169,915 direct beneficiaries and sh 125.3m disbursed to them.