John Walugembe has revealed that the majority of the business which are getting challenges in accessing the covid-19 recovery funds are informal.
After being hit hard by the negative impact of covid-19 lockdowns last year, President Museveni directed the Bank of Uganda to establish a special fund that would support small businesses, to recover from the shock.
Under the Small Business Recovery Fund (SBRF), BoU partnered with commercial banks to give out the lowest-interest loans to these businesses to help them get into life again.
A year later, a relatively small number of businesses have managed to receive this money.
Walugembe in an exclusive interview with Daparrot at the sidelines of Makerere University College of Business and Management Sciences (COBAMS),s Entrepreneurship Breakfast Meeting said the majority of the business which has failed to access the funds are Informal in nature,
“Majority of formalized businesses have accessed this fund. All businesses which are finding challenges to access the money are Informaland they see the steps told to take to formalize as challenges,” he said.
About 51% of Uganda’s Startups are informal in nature and yet they are the ones that were hit hard by the lockdowns.
“The fund uptake is low, we as FSMEs are engaging the BoU to increase sensitization among the masses,” he said.
In his keynote address at the meeting, Walugembe tasked the University to produce students who have practical skills to enable them to compete in job markets and also start their own jobs.
“We want to see innovative students who can practically do what they studied in class,” he said
SMEs, he said want to see more young people in businesses.
“We want to ensure that young people are work ready, to ensure that they get placement in workplaces, retained or start their own business,”
Prof. Eria Hisali the Principal of the College of Business and Management Sciences (COBAMS) said that they are in the advanced plan of completing the innovation hub, has revealed.
Once completed in January 2023, the hub will help innovative students, especially those entrepreneurs to actualize what they are studying.
“We are establishing an innovation hub, and in that hub, there will be all sorts of equipment and machinery l, design labs that will help put students to actualize the ideas that they have,” he said
The meeting aimed at discussing different ways how student entrepreneurs can leverage through after school, start and maintain their own businesses with minimal challenges.
“Once you come out of the incubation hub, you just go to the manufacturing stage, we are also making our academic programs more practical and relevant to the needs of the market and to be sure that we are doing this, we test the practicability of the skills that the students are learning through the entrepreneurship exposition,”
At the entrepreneurship exposition, he said students come up with new ideas that can help solve the problems of society and create jobs.
“And these ideas are assessed by the panel of experts and it accounts for part of their grading marks,” he said
He noted that the University has also submitted a proposal to the government, to establish a graduate entrepreneurship and employment facility that will support graduate students with some initial funding on the basis that the idea should be scalable and has the potential to create jobs.
“We are not only focusing on graduates because as the University we have a responsibility to engage the private sector, government, and community and we are exploring ways through which we can support the private sector, government, and community,” he said.
Cathy Mbide, the Manager of the hub said that the hub will not only help students but all entrepreneurs who want to actualize their dreams.
“Our aim is getting research out of libraries and we start a real business, we are setting up 9 design labs which will help different entrepreneurs do their businesses ideas there,” she said
The meeting attracted severe entrepreneurs from different sectors especially students and experts who shared similar goals and objectives.
