GROW Project to support growth of small businesses, says minister Amongi
OYAM, February 16, 2024 – The Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises Uganda [GROW] Project funded by the World Bank supports existing businesses and not new ones, according to Betty Amongi, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
“We want your business to grow from small, medium to large. What we are doing with this programme is that we want you to develop your individual businesses,” she said.
Amongi added: “So we are going to give you that money as an individual and what we require is that you choose what you want under this programme because it has several components,” the minister said while presiding over awareness and sensitisation engagement for women entrepreneurs.
The engagement which attracted women entrepreneurs, community development officers, labour officers and development partners from Acholi, Lango and West Nile took place on Wednesday at Northern Gateway Hotel in Kamdini Town council in Oyam district.
The engagement was organised by the Gender ministry to give an overview of the Shs 800 billion project’s objectives, components and modalities of implementation, and accessibility of services.
The engagement also looked at gender based violence and its implication on women’s economic empowerment, and the women entrepreneurs platforms [WEP] and its role in the execution of the World Bank project.
Minister Amongi said that the government already signed a memorandum of understanding with Uganda Industrial Research Institute [UIRI] and was ready to kick start the provision of business development services.
“The first component which is the business development services and technical training. We have already signed a MoU with UIRI and we are ready to kick start the training in two weeks,” she said.
She said the project’s beneficiaries would be trained in soap making and cosmetics, specialised handcraft, textiles and embroidery, waving and knitting, bakery, meat processing, fruits and vegetable processing, dairy, mushroom cultivation, and and peanut butter processing.
According to Amongi beneficiaries will also be trained to process tomato sauce, spices , wood work, as well as metallic fabrication, bamboo processing, ceramics, briquette making and making clean energy cooking stoves, among others.
The project was launched in 2023 with the objective to increase access to entrepreneurial services that enable female entrepreneurs to grow their enterprises in refugee host districts.
The Deputy Mayor of Gulu City, Christine Olok appreciated government for the initiative to uplift women entrepreneurs.
https://thecooperator.news/teso-cultural-leaders-urged-to-identify-beneficiaries-of-grow-project/
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