Women advised on savings

By Edward Kayiwa
 
KAMPALA - In order to consolidate the gains made on women participation and success in business, the Uganda women entrepreneurs' association limited (UWEAL) has urged female entrepreneurs to embrace a planning and saving culture for their enterprises.
 
The Association has also cautioned women against financial indiscipline, such as mixing business resources with family matters, which often leads to closure, especially of women owned enterprises.
 
"The challenge now is that we just copy everything we hear and see, without investigating its relevance to the survival of our enterprises. We also need to embrace a saving culture in order to evenly compete in the market, since there is no better way of getting debt free capital," said Theresa Mbiire, a UWEAL founding member at their annual conference in Bugolobi.
 
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBoS), women contribute more than 25% of the SME sector in Uganda, which employs more than 2.5 million people and constitutes up to 90% of the private sector.
 
Mbiire noted that majority of women have never been formally trained to run their enterprises professionally and as a result most struggle and collapse after just a few years.
 
She said the key to successful businesses is managing income and expenditure, which many fail to control, leading to collapse of their businesses.
 
"All I have in life has been through financial discipline and saving, but most women turn on the little profits they have and spend on accessories and other personal needs," she said.
 
According to the World Bank's National Accounts statistics of 2015, Uganda's saving to GDP ratio currently stands at 17.4%, behind Tanzania's 20.6% and Kenya‘s 25%.
 
This, according to Makerere University economics lecturer, Augustus Nuwagaba, is because approximately 68.9% of the population lives outside the formal cash economy, making it hard to trap and record statistics.
 
He said the low savings rate has been largely due to inadequate financial services, financial illiteracy, physical distance from banking institutions and high minimum deposit and balance requirements charged by banks.
 
The senior MSME officer at the ministry of trade, Chris Opuru said the growth in the telecommunications sector (mobile money) has attracted banks to play a key role in exploiting women's saving potential.
 
He said government will continue supporting women through creation of an enabling environment for their enterprises to thrive.