Uganda women entrepreneurs at micro level face challenges

By John Odyek

Gudula Naiga Basaza, the chairperson of Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Ltd (UWEAL) has said women at micro level hardly have access to finance to grow their businesses so they cannot benefit from economies of scale of large scale production.

"They have no credit history and banks cannot give them credit. They are too small to be managed by the banks," Basaza told the New Vision in an interview.

Basaza said the female entrepreneurs would use microfinance services but they demand for the women to be in groups. "In reality being in a group does not make economic sense. People have different business interests. Being in a group is a challenge. When one person messes up, the whole group suffers," Basaza said.

Basaza said, a critical challenge female entrepreneurs face at micro level was that of comingling funds of the business and home needs.

"When a woman has capital of sh20,000, she buys chips to sell. When the child falls sick, she might use all the capital and profits to treat the child because they have no salary and may lose the business," Basaza said.

She said female entrepreneurs working in markets face challenges with local authorities. "There are so many people who collect money from them on a daily basis.

When you bring your goods to market someone demands money, local authorities demand for money, the owner of the stall demands for money. Money is demanded for cleanliness and there no receipts given they pay money daily at the end of the month you can find they have paid sh60,000," Basaza said.

She explained that women at micro level sell to people with low incomes who demand for lower prices. "Women do not know the prices of the goods and sell at a loss because they do not know," Basaza said.

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