Refugee women in Nakivale settlement to benefit from GROW project

ISINGIRO - The Ugandan government has extended the Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) project to refugee-owned businesses and refugee women entrepreneurs.

The partnership was launched on Saturday, March 28, in partnership with UGAFODE  Microfinance to disburse  GROW loans to refugee women in Nakivale refugee settlement in Isingiro district.

Dr Ruth Aisha Biyinzika Kasolo, the GROW project coordinator at the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and Dr Serena Cavicchi, a senior Social Development Specialist at World Bank and the Task Team Lead GROW project in Uganda, presided over the events.

The  GROW Project, funded by the World Bank, is supervised by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

It aims to support female entrepreneurs in growing their businesses from micro to small or medium enterprises by providing affordable capital at 10% annual interest rate, training, and common user infrastructure.

On Saturday, Kasolo said the GROW project offers women entrepreneurs, including refugees, loans ranging from  sh4m to shs200m without traditional collateral.

In August 2025, the government allocated sh36b specifically for infrastructural development, such as facilities to add value to produce for enterprises in refugee-hosting communities.

Over 6,400 refugee women have already been trained in entrepreneurship skills, focusing on financial literacy, business management, and marketing.

“Government, with guidance from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the World Bank, We agreed to bring on board financial institutions that understand refugees, and that’s the reason why government thought about UGAFODE, Pride Bank, among others, because they already had products for refugees, where they give refugees funds without even collateral,” She explained.

Kasolo added that “Under the GROW project, we look at refugees as businesswomen who are doing an activity for business, and she is able to grow her business, we want them to grow, and start also contributing to the economy, employ more people, we want to see their products move across borders to bring in some revenue.”

She mentioned that the government has already given sh111b targeting 4,888 women, and they expect to have disbursed all funds by December 2027.

“I remind you women to utilise these opportunities and believe in yourselves, because what men can do, we (women) can even do better. Grow is here to transform you holistically, if you want mentorship, apprenticeship, and to network among others, Grow has it,” Kasolo said.

Serena Cavicchi, a senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank and the Task team Lead GROW project in Uganda, hailed the government of Uganda for considering extending the GROW project to refugees and empowering women in business to address the financial challenges faced by refugees.

Shafi Nambobi, the Chief Executive Officer of UGAFODE Micro Finance Limited, said the financial institution, being the first to start operations in  March 2020, in Nakivale settlement and having a memorandum of understanding with the Office of Prime Minister (OPM), started offering loans to refugees without collateral, giving them an opportunity to partner with the Government in the GROW project.

“When we started offering loans, we talked with the OPM, UNHCR and agreed to use the refugee Identity card as a unifying document.  UGAFODE also talked to the Bank of Uganda, which allowed us to use the refugee IDs, and it has been helping in recovering loans,” he explained.

Nambobi added that as of March 2026, UGAFODE had disbursed shs 4.9b in loans among which shs 57m was given to refugee women, with an average loan size of shs 2.8m to sh10m

He appealed to the beneficiaries to be reliable, trustworthy, and when they get the loan, to return the loan instalments so that it can lend it to others.

Jogo Titus, the Refugee Desk officer for Nakivale settlement, said that about 51 % of the 277,411 population refugees in Nakivale settlement are women, noting that empowering women is eradicating poverty from the family, and his office is proud of the project’s target to empower women in the settlement.

“This project has come at a time when refugee operations in the country is experiencing challenges.  While the number of refugees in the country is increasing on a daily basis, the funding is dwindling.  

“Therefore, we thank the World Bank for providing funds through the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development to support refugee operations in Uganda.  Our role as the Office of the Prime Minister is to ensure there is a conducive environment for all partners,” he pledged.