NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

As many as 1,500 social entrepreneurs in Uganda will this year receive training, coaching and mentoring, thanks to a partnership between U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Foundation Uganda Ltd, a social enterprise support system.

The three-year partnership programme is geared at promoting economic security in Uganda through supporting Small and Medium Social Businesses to generate sustainable quality jobs, income opportunities, and access to good nutrition and related services for the Ugandan people.

“Of the 1,500, 135 will be assisted to scale their businesses through improvement of their business models, conducting testing and accessing linkages to markets; while the most promising 20 social businesses with combined potential to create more than 2,200 full-time quality jobs and networks of 1,800 suppliers and distributors along their value chains will receive investment funds ranging from $200,000 (sh668m) to $350,000 (sh1.2b) each,” says Eriab Kiiza, managing director, Yunus Social Business Uganda.

A social business is a formal entity created with the main purpose of solving a social problem in a financially self-sustainable way.