Uganda: Women-Owned Firms Get Shs 1.6bn Deals

20 September 2024
The Observer (Kampala)
By Geofrey Serugo

Eight women-owned businesses have emerged as the first beneficiaries of the Advancing Women Entrepreneurs initiative launched by MTN Uganda in collaboration with several partners, including ATC Uganda.

The initiative aims to empower more women to take up more significant businesses in the telecom sector space and draw women entrepreneurs into its supply chain. The program focuses on growing the supply base, building powerful partnerships, enhancing business capacity, and cultivating sustainable ecosystems.

The eight include Solar Nation, Fireside Ltd., Tass, Spectrum Technologies Ltd., Pavicon, Nubly Technology Ltd. and others. ATC Uganda has taken a leading role in this initiative by offering business opportunities to women entrepreneurs in engineering projects such as solar and fibre-to-the-tower installations.

The selected women have undergone extensive training to equip them for the technical demands of their roles, particularly in solar installations at ATC Uganda sites. This training ensures that they are well-prepared to excel in traditionally male-dominated fields.

"ATC Uganda is proud to lead the way in empowering women entrepreneurs by integrating them into our supply chain and providing them with opportunities in engineering and technology," said Dorothy Semanda Kabagambe CEO of ATC Uganda.

Sylvia Mulinge, the MTN Uganda CEO, said, "We are filled with pride as we witness ATC Uganda hand over contracts to eight remarkable women-owned companies. These contracts, involving the installation of solar plants at telecom masts, represent more than just business opportunities; they symbolise a significant step towards a more sustainable and inclusive future. This achievement is particularly meaningful as it reflects the success of our Advancing Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) initiative, which MTN Uganda spearheads to drive diversity and inclusion by integrating women entrepreneurs into our supply chain."

"We began on a deliberate journey to get a lot more women to come into our ecosystems. When we started off this journey, taking our baseline statistics in 2022, we had about 3% of our business going to women today," she said.

Read the original article on Observer.

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