Govt picks six banks for over Shs 803bln GROW project
GROW project is a Government of Uganda initiative that arose out of the need to respond to the needs of women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses, sustain their self-employment and create more jobs
KAMPALA, August 14, 2024 – Six commercial banks have been selected by government as it implements the World Bank funded Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises [ GROW ] project.
According to Gender minister, Betty Amongi who was addressing stakeholders in Kampala recently, GROW project worth US$ 217 million [about Shs 803 billion] intends to disburse funds to the selected beneficiaries soon, and they will be working with the selected commercial banks.
The minister said her team recently held a meeting with representatives of the accredited banks, World Bank officials as well as the representatives of Private Sector Foundation Uganda [PSFU] to discuss how the women entrepreneurs selected would be receiving the money to implement their projects.
Amongi who called on the banks to stick to the interest rate agreed by the government, identified some of the partner banks as Centenary Bank, Housing Finance Bank, DFCU, Finance Trust Bank, Post Bank.
The Gender ministry, and PSFU are key implementers of the project targeting to benefit 1.2 million women entrepreneurs across the country.
However, in June, Members of Parliament on parliament’s Public Accounts Committee [PAC] raised concerns over the utilisation of the Shs 803 billion World Bank grant. The MPs were referring to a report of the Auditor General which revealed that despite the grant’s primary goal of supporting established women-led businesses, a significant portion of the money was being directed towards mind-set change programmes, infrastructure development and competitions rather than directly benefiting the women entrepreneurs as financial aid.
The implementation of the project which started in January 2023 and ends in December 2027, and targets female-owned enterprises in all districts, municipalities, and cities across the country.
The report notes only Shs 133bln was going to the women directly, while some of the funds would be given out as loans at an interest rate of 10 percent.
GROW project is a Government of Uganda initiative that arose out of the need to respond to the needs of women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses, sustain their self-employment and create more jobs. The project’s development objective is to increase access to entrepreneurial services that enable female entrepreneurs to grow their enterprises in targeted locations, including in refugee-hosting districts.
The project is implemented using a “wrap-around” approach comprising a package of integrated services under four components. The package of services aims at empowering women entrepreneurs to grow and transition from micro to small or from small to medium and improve their productivity.
“Our mandate is to sit and think, how do we empower these vulnerable women? It is a challenging task because as women, we have those who are educated, uneducated, poor, middle class, rich and empowered,” Amongi said.
https://thecooperator.news/grow-project-funds-misallocated-says-auditor-general/
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