About Us

Who We Are

Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL) was established in 1987, whose mandate is grounded in 3 core program areas; Building strong women owned enterprises, networking and marketing linkages for business women and advocating for policies that create an enabling environment for women to compete favorably in business.
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UWEAL has spearheaded the transformation of the landscape that gives women in business a voice to show case that women are as capable to start and run a business as much as men.

The association is currently firmly placed in the private sector to assist and provide the necessary support and guidance to women in business and to advocate for favorable policies through which women entrepreneurs can flourish.

What We Do?

We’re on a Mission to Empower
Women Entrepreneurs

Advocacy

UWEAL is one voice for business women with the aim of advocating for conducive business environment for business women. UWEAL is a power house for women in business and have over the years built strong partnerships with Government and development partners playing key role in contributing to gender responsive policies.

Capacity Building

  • Training : This service is provided to members who have governance and management challenges in business.
  • Mentoring and coaching : This service is provided to members who wish to start business or those in business but facing challenges of sustainability.
  • Business counseling : We provide a day for counselling sessions on appointment and invite experienced members to provide counsel.
  • Business incubation and advisory services : We support women in business innovations and nurture their project ideas.

Networking

At UWEAL we believe providing opportunities for women to meet and share experiences of how to start, sustain and grow business makes a difference in a business woman’s mind. We also encourage women to create a market for each other through personal contacts established when we bring them together as a group with a common mind of doing business. Our members are therefore exposed to potential markets nationally, regionally and internationally through our membership to EABC, COMESA and have established an East African Women Entrepreneurs Exchange Network.
About Us

Our Mission

To empower women entrepreneurs to create wealth through capacity building, networking and advocacy.
About Us

Our Vision

We envisage a wealthy woman responsibly contributing to national economic development.
About Us

Our Goals

  • 1. To enhance the growth of member Owned Enterprises
  • 2. To enhance the sustainability of UWEAL
  • 3. To strengthen the networking of UWEAL and its Members
  • 4. To enhance the public relations and advocacy capacity of UWEAL
  • 5. To Strengthening UWEAL Membership
  • 6. To Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of UWEAL

Would you like to become a member?

We believe that investing in women is investing in our nation’s economy.
Membership

Benefits of Becoming a member

Access to business skills training

For any entrepreneur, having business skills is needed for your business' survival, at UWEAL we offer these trainings.

Access to business mentoring and coaching opportunities

We provide business mentoring and coaching opportunities to UWEAL members, join now and access this as well.

Linkage for international markets and exposure travels

Members of UWEAL benefit by having their businesses linked to nternational markets and travels for the you as a member.

Business counselling and hand-holding

Fellow members who are experienced in a similar business line can provide guide new or other members on how to navigate the business.

Access to business incubation and advisory services

At UWEAL we offer business incubation and advisory services, as a member you have access to this and more.

Networking opportunities

For members there are networking opportunities with both local and international entrepreneurs.

Access to finance

As a member you have access to finance with very low interests from UWEAL negotiated partnerships.

Membership Fees

# Category Fee Membership Annual Subscription
1 Individual (Ordinary) Ugx 50, 000 Ugx 100, 000
2 Women Groups (Associations) Ugx 50, 000 Ugx 150, 000
3 Corporate Companies Ugx 50, 000 Ugx 150, 000
4 Chapters - Ugx 250, 000
Membership

Programs That Benefit Members Directly

Member and Corporate Breakfast Meetings

UWEAL hosts strong business presenters speaking on knowledge enriching topics at monthly breakfast meetings. This is an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to network and share information and experiences.

The Women Investment Club – SACCO

The UWEAL WIC-SACCO was registered in July 2005 as a women’s savings and credit cooperative society to help enhance access to financial services.

Enterprise Institute

The UWEAL Enterprise Institute aims at providing practical educational programs, resources and tools that support entrepreneurs to design launch and lead successful business ventures.

Women’s Incubation Center

UWEAL is committed to empowering women entrepreneurs by providing Business Development Services under one roof to enable them grow their enterprises on a sustainable basis.

Girl Entrepreneurship Program (GEP)

GEP creates awareness about business and entrepreneurship to youth particularly young women and girls in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and universities.

Month of the Woman Entrepreneurs (MOWE)

MOWE is a global annual event held in November which brings together local regional and international women entrepreneurs and business executives to celebrate the role of women entrepreneurs across the globe.

Annual Women Business Leaders Conference

The UWEAL Annual Women Business Leaders Conference is a unique platform for these business leaders share their experience, inspire others and be inspired, to create strategic business partnerships, discover new business and investment opportunities.

We also offer support to a range of comprehensive services that empower women to recover from business losses, political instability, sexual exploitation and domestic violence and help them rebuild their lives. We particularly recognize the vital importance of giving marginalized groups of women a chance to exercise their influence and have their voices heard.

We believe that investing in women is investing in our nation’s economy. UWEAL has made a lot of investments in creating opportunities for our members and women entrepreneurs across the country to access capacity building and networking opportunities as well as take part in our advocacy campaigns.

We have offered training and business advisory services to a membership of over 3.2 million women entrepreneurs from 92 chapters/districts.

We have built our member’s capacities in product development, entrepreneurship & business management and offer networking and mentorship opportunities throughout the year.

UWEAL has categorized its membership into fourteen (14) strategic sectors/clusters, the clusters enable the organization to provide relevant skill-based training as well as effective networking among women in the same sector to develop tailored solutions specific to their business and sector needs.

Our Membership Sectors/Clusters
  • - Professional Services
  • - Agri-Business,
  • - Textiles & Garments,
  • - Tourism,
  • - Furniture & Interior Design,
  • - Handcrafts &Ceramics,
  • - ICT
  • - Oil and Gas.
  • - Manufacturing and infrastructure
  • - Renewable energy
  • - Health and Herbal
  • - Construction and Real estate.
  • - Retired Women
  • - Youth
Ongoing & New Projects

Our Projects

Generating increased pricing and new markets for the women engaged in the shea butter value chains of South Sudan and Uganda (2020-2023)

The two-year, US$ 550,593 project: “Generating increased pricing and new markets for the women engaged in the shea butter value chains of South Sudan and Uganda” is funded by Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) and is aiming at changing the lives of 7,400 women producers and processors in the East African shea butter value chain.

The project is implemented through the local UWEAL chapter in Uganda and the South Sudan Women Entrepreneurs Association (SSWEA) in South Sudan.

Making Trade Work for Women in Uganda, (LUME) (2019-2024)

Making Trade Work for Women in Sub-Saharan Africa – Lesotho, Uganda, Madagascar, Ethiopia (LUME)” is a 5 year (CAD 2,105,263) project (CAD 2 million funded by Global Affairs Canada) which will enhance economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs in four sub-Saharan Least Developed Countries (LDCs)- Lesotho, Uganda, Madagascar, and Ethiopia - by providing training and technical assistance targeted towards increase of exports of specialty apparel, textile, fashion accessories and home décor products to Canada and other foreign markets.

The project will enable gender equitable and sustainable Trade Support Institution (TSIs) in the target countries to provide gender responsive market access services and ensure women owned/led Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are accessing those services and implementing export plans for Canadian and other foreign markets.

Hosting the Ugandan Component of The Regional Information Platform for Women Traders in East Africa:

This is three-year project, USD 500,000 funded by Trade Mark East Africa with support from Global Affairs Canada. UWEAL will host the Ugandan component of the regional information platform for women traders in East Africa. This is aimed at providing greater access to markets and information on other trade support services. This will contribute towards the greater inclusion of women in trade, as one of the pathways to increased business competitiveness and increased trade in the East Africa Community (EAC).

The web and mobile based platform will facilitate access to update and real time information for women traders. By adopting mobile-based technologies that are basic, simple, and easy to use, the platform will be useable even in areas of high illiteracy levels – with the basic requirement being ability to use a mobile phone. The development of the platform was informed by information needs assessment of women traders across the East African region.

Promote Supplementary Feeding

UWEAL is part of the consortium, led by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) and implementing a Promoting Supplementary Feeding (Supple-F) project. The Suppl-F project is component of a broader program known as “Developing a market oriented and environmentally sustainable Beef meat industry in Uganda (MOBIP)”. The program is a European Union grant (under the 11th EDF) extended to the Government of Uganda to develop the beef value chain.

The project has been rolled out in 10 selected districts of Nakaseke, Lyantonde, Nakasongola, Kiruhura, Isingiro, Mubende, Kyankwanzi, Kiryandongo, Kibaale and Masindi. This project was funded by European union; 2.8 billion Uganda shillings fro the period of two year with six month no cost Extension.

Enhancing Women Participation in Public Procurement : Funded by UN Women for 3 years, 500million Uganda shillings.

Public procurement is increasingly being recognized as a vehicle to help government achieve social goals and sustainable development. The government of Uganda spends approximately 60% of its budget on procurement and the fact that they are the largest buyers in the economy, public procurement offers a unique, financially sustainable avenue to empower women and reduce poverty.

Studies show that women-owned businesses that are able to successfully obtain government contracts usually grow, and in return, contribute to increased GDP growth and an improved labour force participation. In Uganda, 44% of the businesses are owned by women and it is estimated that women entrepreneurs supply only 1% of the market due to the various barriers.

It’s from this background that UN Women partnered with Uganda Women Association Limited (UWEAL) and The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) to build the capacity of Women entrepreneurs in Uganda, in the bid to enhance women participation in public procurement. The 3year project has so enabled UWEAL to reach out to the chapters and empower women at the grass.

Extending Business Development Services to the Refugee and host community women entrepreneurs

UWEAL is a project-implementing partner for the ILO-PROSPECTS programme with a mandate to mobilize refugee women entrepreneurs and their host community members to extend business development services to the refugee settlements. The partnership will provide PROSPECTS’ target beneficiaries with a wide range of services offered by UWEAL such as; training, networking, advocacy, voice and representation.

The PROSPECTS Partnership is targeting two districts representing different socio-economic contexts: Nakivale refugee settlement (Isingiro district in the South) a 60-year old refugee hosting area with the most diverse refugee population (ethnicities and nationalities) and Rhino Camp settlement (Arua district in the North) hosts South Sudanese refugees and is close to theborders of South Sudan and the DRC. Each of the two locations are expected to deliver different learning outcomes given their unique contexts.

UWEAL is mobilizing refugee and host community women entrepreneurs within the membership to take full advantage of the support under the partnership, but also recruit more members within the host counties to ensure they benefit from UWEAL’s mandate of building strong women owned enterprises, networking and marketing linkages for Businesswomen, advocate for policies that create an enabling environment for women to compete favourably in business.

Women business programs

Training and Capacity Building Activities

  • a) Recognized as the apex body of the women Entrepreneurs in Uganda.
  • b) Has over 3.2 million members and beneficiary across the country that subscribe to its mandate.
  • c) Good relations with the Government of Uganda and donor community.
  • d) Successfully undertakes capacity building for its membership in issues to do with entrepreneurship, business development, financial literacy, public procurement, Digital marketing, investment red.
  • e) Over 35 years’ experience in capacity building with a pool of professional women entrepreneurs who are experts in a wide range of fields including Tax, Finance, Agribusiness, Tourism, Arts and Crafts management among others.
  • f) Is a founding member of the East African Business Council and East African Women in Business Platform (EAWIBP).
  • g) Is a chair of COMESA Federation for Women in Business Uganda Chapter.

UWEAL has over the past 35 years built the capacity of over 3.2 million women in various entrepreneurship, business development and value addition skills and contributed to the increment and improvement of skills, productivity, product standards, business networks and market linkages for women entrepreneurs across Uganda.

This has also contributed to improvements in leadership skills and good governance among business women and entrepreneurs in the country.

UWEAL offers exemplary capacity building, networking and advocacy services to its membership and to date has accomplished the following:

Accomplishments

  • • ACCESS! Export Training Course for Women Exporters by International Trade Center
  • • Policy paper development and dissemination on EAC and CETs
  • • Curriculum development (module development) – UWEAL Enterprise Institute
  • • Girl Entrepreneurship Program
  • • Business Advisory Support
  • • Feasibility study on Women Incubation with ABI-ICRISAT – FK Norway
  • • Women Incubator Business Plan and Project Development
  • • Women in Business Profiling
  • • Product Certification Support and quality standards support/linkages to certification bodies
  • • Cooperatives and Chapter Development.
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