Stanbic, USA foundation boost entrepreneurs with Shs 1.5bn funding 

Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited (SUHL) and the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) have provided grants worth $400,000 (Shs 1.5 billion) in seed funding to 12 entrepreneurs to inject in their businesses.

The five-year $2 million partnership, which was sealed at Skyz hotel on December 18, is to provide development grants to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), cooperatives and producer groups in Uganda. This, in turn, will help them address gaps in their internal systems and capabilities to 100% meet investment requirements by commercial investors.

USADF is pooling resources with SUHL’s anchor subsidiary Stanbic bank. Stanbic Business Incubator Limited (SBIL), also a subsidiary of SUHL, is the implementer of the project. Emma Mugisha, the executive director and head of Business Banking at Stanbic, said, “Through this partnership, we are motivated and excited by the prospect of supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the process of investment readiness through provision of grant capital and technical assistance.”

“Our aim is to catalyse agricultural growth in Uganda by empowering SMEs, cooperatives and producer groups operating within the agricultural sector for this first cohort. We shall support other mainstream sectors including, but not limited to, energy, health, construction and other professional services that are aligned to Uganda’s national development programs,” Mugisha said.

Each partner will be contributing $200,000 over each of the five years. This investment ceiling will be reviewed every year with possibilities of increasing it to $500,000 per year by each party.

Timothy Nzioka, the director of Program Operations for Africa at USADF, said the accelerator program is basically meant to make these SME investors ready by providing the necessary tools that help them address the challenges.

The program will fund MSMEs whose past investment proposals to financial institutions have been declined. The primary aim is to help the MSMEs address the gaps and challenges they face in qualifying for investments, link them to Stanbic Uganda and other financial institutions for potential follow-up on post-grant commercial investment.

Tony Otoa, the chief executive at SBIL, said, “As Stanbic Uganda Holdings, we believe that Uganda is our home; we drive her growth. Therefore, as the incubator, we are proud to be part of Uganda’s economic growth through supporting SMEs who are the main revenue contributors to the country’s economy.”