Namirembe to host Mothers Union business exhibition

Mar 15, 2016

The idea behind the expo is to promote economic empowerment amongst members

In line with this year's local theme for the International Women's day, ‘Economic empowerment: a vehicle to sustainable development', Mothers Union of Namirembe Cathedral has organized an exhibition to highlight the ventures being undertaken by their member to improve household incomes.

Speaking to New Vision, the President of the Namirembe chapter, Josephine Kasaato explained that the exhibition will run for three days from Thursday to Saturday this week at the Cathedral gardens.

She explained that the members have been undergoing training in different entrepreneurship skills and therefore the need to showcase their products to the world.

Kasaato added that the idea behind this is to promote economic empowerment amongst their members.

The financial status of women even in organized platforms like this remains wanting as explained by Kasaato who said initially getting the members to pay their annual subscription of sh20, 000 was very hard.

"Most of our members are stay home mothers and they become more of a burden if they have to wait on the man to provide for everything even the basic ones as buying salt," she said.

Harriet Musoke, the exhibition organizer highlighted that this is one way of helping the members network and share experiences with fellow members on their different ventures.

"You might be in your cocoon thinking you are doing well and yet there is someone doing what you are doing much better. So it's about tapping in each other's strengths," she said.

The event will also see a number of financial institutions train the exhibitors on financial and business skills but also open their minds to avenues where they can get support such as loans and grants to expand their business.

"The woman in the home needs to grow from just taking care of basics but also be able to support major family investments," she said.

The exhibition is open to the general public but with priority given to members whose registration rates have been subsidized.

According to a 2014, International Labour Organisation report titled, ‘Women Entrepreneurship Development in Uganda, the number of women-owned businesses outpaced that of male-owned businesses by 1.5 times (236% compared to 153 %.) over the last 10 years.

The report further highlights that even though women own 44% of the businesses establishments, they are mainly engaged in self-employment (86.2% of working women). Dedicated supports are not currently available to help those with growth potential to migrate to employer-businesses.

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