The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and the Gulu City Council have joined forces to give women the tools they need to fight poverty at home and become self-sufficient.
The goal of the partnership is to train, educate, add value to their products, equip, and sell the goods of more than 1,000 women who run small businesses. This will help them make money and grow.
Through Outbox and the Northern Uganda Women Network for Business Development (NUWEBIS), the government is finding small businesses that are run by women and connecting them to the NSSF and possible funders so they can get material and financial help.
Alfred Okwonga, the Gulu City Council Mayor, said on Friday that the drive will identify, support, train, and equip them with knowledge, as well as market their products nationally and export them too. Okwonga said that this is a way to deal with the very high rate of poverty in the Acholi Sub-region, which is where Gulu City is, by putting women to work.
Sharon Nakwenja Okello, the Executive Director of NUWEBIS, says that they are lobbying for partners to support women with small businesses such as tailoring, catering, and making beaded products to train them to grow. She notes that this will help the women grow and become self-reliant and economically independent since they are the future of the world.
Maria Goretti Lagum, who is in charge of paste production for the Catholic Women Association (CWA) at Holy Catholic Church, which has 140 members, says that they are happy with the partnership and that it will help them a lot with international markets and money.
Naima Idi, the leader of the Subra Women Group, which has 116 members who run businesses like a salon, a restaurant, a juice factory, and a tailoring shop, says that they want this help to improve their status and that of their families.
Alex Kalimongogo, the NSSF Head of Strategy, said that they will solicit support for the already established groups and ensure that their businesses grow. On Friday, officials from Gulu City, NSSF, and NUWEBIS went to some of the businesses run by women to find out what problems they were having and how they could be helped.