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Uganda |
WOMEN
Successful Ugandan women entrepreneurs have managed to mix business and community welfare. But it’s not all plain sailing
To Josephine Magoba, a successful Ugandan woman butcher, The Uganda Women’s Finance Trust (UWFT) offered a bright light in her otherwise gloomy financial situation. This mother of three from Nakulabye, 3km west of Kampala, borrowed the equivalent of $250 and established her butchery in the midst of other butcheries run by men.
In this male-dominated business, Magoba firmly established herself as a trader who is both honest and thrifty. She once appeared on national television as a textbook success. According to a 1999 government report, women own the majority of the country’s 800,000 small and medium sized businesses.
«Women have proved better savers and pay back their loans promptly,» says John Beijuka, a Ugandan economist. There is a 98% chance of women paying back their loans to the UWFT — in sharp contrast to the 65% in male-dominated mainstream banks. Consequently, the UWFT has been spared the problems that afflict mainstream banks where male traders are late or never pay back their loans. The UWFT has never suspended its loans’ service, as the mainstream banks have had to do. The fact is, the number of men actually in business has been diminishing and this has encouraged women to take up the challenge.
By June 2001, the 15-year-old UWFT had amassed securities worth US $3.15m; plus savings worth US $1.7m, and had attracted 31,656 borrowers and 43,594 savers.
Position in society
But women in business are faced with a major problem. Their position in society is such, that they are easy prey to some men and are not always able to control their enterprises. There’s the example of Edith Kagino, who borrowed from the UWFT to establish a business selling diaries. Eventually, she lost everything to the man she was living with, who threw her out of their home. She took her suffering stoically despite a loss of credibility with the UWFT which obviously wanted its money returned.
Margaret Synder used to be with the Makerere University Department of Gender studies. She interviewed seventy-four women entrepreneurs ranging from food vendors to a manager in an international freight business, and realised that women need to brighten up their act. However, she is convinced that business women in Uganda offer a new non-western development model, as they combine wealth-creation with a desire to invest in the welfare of their extended family and community, thereby democratising the economy by strengthening its base at a grassroots’ level.
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PeaceLink 2002 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement