WAKISO – Women across the country will access strategic information for empowerment and critical connections that are essential to their economic advancement, courtesy of Gudie Leisure Farm, CARE International, DFCU Bank Uganda, Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) Project- Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Bank of Uganda and UN Women’s Women’s Information Highway.
An exciting, high impact-centered information highway taking place on Friday 8th March, 2024 at Gudie Leisure Farm in Najjeera II is in commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day.
Organized under the theme, Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress, the event will host several strategic partners, mentors and thought leaders from various backgrounds and sectors who will highlight different opportunities women can leverage as well as best practices they can adopt to impact themselves, their families and communities.
Speaking at the launch of the initiative at Gudie Leisure Farm in Najeera-il, Kira, Prof. Gudula Naiga Basaza, the Founder and Managing Director of Gudie Leisure Farm, explained, “The contribution of women leaders to the positive transformation of communities and the country is enormous! We have achieved much as Uganda, Africa and the world because of the dedication and resilience of women leaders which we must recognize and celebrate!”
According to the stakeholders, Uganda as a country is committed to women’s empowerment, however, very many women and girls are yet to maximize the opportunities that exist to accelerate their personal, professional and economic growth.
“We recognize there are many reasons for this; part of which is the limited access to critical and timely information. This is the drive behind the Women’s Information Highway which we will be hosting on International Women’s Day here at Gudie Leisure Farm.”
Prof. Basaza further explained that the Women’s Information Highway is a full suite of information that a woman needs to blossom and make strategic and measurable contribution in her lifetime while impacting communities.
She is optimistic that the highway will expose women to step by step processes of;
- How to formalize their business & register intellectual property
- The certification and compliance processes
- Access to business financing instruments. The Highway will share available government and development partner opportunities and how they can be accessed, provide options
- Market access information & supply (tenders & bidding opportunities)
- Investments that deliver sustainable and secured passive income and
- Focus on the woman as a leader, a brand that is healthy, wealthy and secure
Ms. Yossa Immaculate Daisy, Senior Initiative Manager for the CASCADE project at CARE Uganda said, “Women and girls are a core impact population for CARE International. We recognized long ago that societies cannot achieve sustainable economic growth, food and nutrition security, human capital development and climate justice where gender inequality is prevalent.”
“We continue to be committed to our vision of ensuring that at least 50 million people of all genders experience greater gender equality in their lives under the National Development Plan III, SDG 5 as well as SDGs 1, 4, 8, 10 and 16 by 2030 and we are pleased to be partnering in this noble cause of the Women’s Information Highway during which many women and girls will be transformed with the information they acquire and learn how to fish not to be fished for.”
She added, “We will also share some of our organization initiatives in the programme areas of climate justice, livelihood, gender justices and humanitarian initiatives Particularly to support women and girls, and how those that are not part of them can come on board. To women and girls in Uganda, much as we have registered noticeable progress, the journey is still long for many of us to realize our full potential, so let us meet, connect, and discuss how we can work together to navigate these challenges”
Ruth Asasira – Head Women in Business at dfcu Bank noted that they are the pioneer among commercial Banks in Uganda to launch a women’s proposition purposed at creating an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs.
“To date several institutions have rolled out women empowerment initiatives as well. With over 80,000 women enrolled on dfcu’s women in business program, women economic empowerment continues to be a priority area for the Bank in our quest to transform lives and businesses in Uganda.”
Ms. Asasira pointed out that Uganda is leading in women entrepreneurship in the sub-Saharan Africa with over 38% women entrepreneurs, however, it is reported that only 24% of the credit portfolio in regulated institutions is allocated to women.
“Dfcu Bank through the women in business program continues to drive the uptake of credit among women by reducing the interest rates and offering unsecured credit facilities to support women owned businesses.”
“We will be sharing about some of the exciting products and services we have and will also be launching this year during the Women’s Information Highway and welcome growth-ready business and corporate women to participate,” she noted.
