Women in Nakivale and Oruchinga refugee settlements have been urged to embrace the government-supported Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) Project as traditional donor funding continues to decline.
The call was made during a business training organised by Enterprise Uganda at St Kaggwa Training Centre in Bushenyi District, which brought together women refugees engaged in small and micro enterprises.
Settlement leaders said shrinking humanitarian support, particularly food and cash assistance, has made economic self-reliance increasingly urgent for refugees who have lived in Uganda for many years.
Ms Monica Mugisha, the settlement commandant for Nakivale Refugee Settlement, said donor funding cuts had affected nearly all sectors in the settlement, creating gaps that programmes such as GROW are expected to help fill.
‘We have been experiencing reduced funding across sectors. With GROW coming on board, it is supporting women who are already active in business but lack the capacity to scale,’ Ms Mugisha said.
She noted that although other organisations had previously offered training in Nakivale, their reach was limited.
‘GROW has the capacity to reach a bigger number of women. This will help them not only to grow their businesses but also to manage their households better and seek opportunities beyond the settlement,’ she said.
Ms Mugisha added that Uganda’s refugee policy, which allows freedom of movement, enables women refugees to operate businesses outside settlements, including in nearby towns such as Mbarara.
At Oruchinga Refugee Settlement, the commandant, Mr Charlie Tofias, said the near withdrawal of food and cash assistance by the World Food Programme (WFP) had accelerated the shift toward livelihood-based interventions.
‘Most refugees are now off food and cash assistance. We are looking at self-sustainability, especially because many of them have been here for a long time,’ Mr Tofias said.
He described the refugee situation as increasingly protracted, with limited prospects for resettlement or return.
‘We cannot depend on donors forever. Projects like GROW, supported by the World Bank, allow refugees to grow small businesses into sustainable enterprises,’ he said.
Mr Tofias said empowering women was central to household stability and community cohesion.
‘When a woman is economically empowered, the whole family benefits. Children go back to school, health improves and households become more stable,’ he said, adding that Oruchinga no longer receives new arrivals but still struggles with poverty.
‘A developed refugee population contributes to a calm and stable Uganda. These people are here to stay, and supporting their development is in the national interest,’ he said.
The training focused on business planning, opportunity identification and basic market research, areas that facilitators say are often overlooked by small-scale entrepreneurs.
Mr Andrew Nuwagira, a Monitoring and Evaluation specialist at Enterprise Uganda, said many refugees start businesses without sufficient planning, which limits growth and sustainability.
‘We trained participants on how to identify viable business opportunities, understand their customers, choose business locations and set prices,’ Mr Nuwagira said.
He said the training also encouraged participants to learn from existing businesses and to plan before expanding.
‘Our expectation is that by the end of this programme, participants will be able to grow existing enterprises and, in some cases, start new ones more strategically,’ he said.
Mr Charles Ocici, Director General of Enterprise Uganda, said the GROW Project deliberately targets women because they have historically been confined to informal and micro enterprises, limiting national productivity.
‘For decades, women have been left at the lower end of the private sector. That means we have underutilised half of our population,’ Mr Ocici said.
He said empowering women entrepreneurs has multiplier effects beyond business.
‘A woman improves not only national output but also household productivity and welfare. She influences how resources are used within the family,’ he said.
Mr Ocici said Enterprise Uganda brings more than two decades of experience in private sector development, focusing on business skills, planning and access to finance.
‘We train women to appreciate planning, resource mobilisation and how to graduate from microfinance to commercial and development banks,’ he said.
Participants described the training as transformative.
Ms Medius Kembabazi, a refugee entrepreneur, said she realised that poor financial discipline had held back her business.
‘I learned that I was stealing from my own business by using profits and even capital for personal expenses,’ she said.
She said the training taught her to reinvest profits and value non-financial capital such as time, attitude and knowledge.
‘I have learned that I am my first capital. My mindset matters if my business is to grow,’ she said