The winners of ‘Rising Woman’ Season Two Initiative have been flagged off to an all-paid study excursion to Nairobi. The trip is expected to enhance their understanding of their various businesses and expose them to best practices.
Dfcu Bank, through its Women in Business Program (WiB) started ‘Rising Woman’ and collaborated with different partners to empower and accelerate the participation of women entrepreneurs in the business arena.
The Program stands on three strong pillars including; focus on women’s empowerment and equal opportunities, financial services designed with women in mind and non-financial services including networking, mentoring and training. Since its inception, over 35,000 women have benefited from capacity building sessions organized by the Bank in partnership with different stakeholders.
The 6-month nationwide Rising Woman campaign under the theme ‘Taking your Business forward’ attracted over 1,000 women entrepreneurs in the two-day business training sessions enlightening them on business matters such as; taxation, record-keeping, investment licenses, the importance of business registration and marketing. This was in addition to a two-day expo which provided women-headed businesses with a platform to showcase their products, services and share knowledge with other entrepreneurs which climaxed the campaign.
The trainings run alongside a proposal writing competition that saw 13 women entrepreneurs emerge victorious during the awards dinner at Hotel Africana. One delegate was chosen from the top ten winners of the proposal writing competition to represent their businesses in Nairobi.
The following women entrepreneurial groups emerged victorious in the competition; Western Silk, My Passion, Haziel Agencies, Living Love Ministries, Val Media Consultancy, AWA Foods, Sceck Consults, Aw Bamboo Enterprises Limited, Finem (U) Limited, Wegner Investment Limited.
Belinda Namutebi, Council Member of dfcu Bank’s Women Advisory Council officiated at the flag-off; congratulating the entrepreneurs and urging them to take advantage of the study tour and the benefits of the Bank’s tailormade financial solutions for women.
Victoria Byenkya, dfcu Bank’s Women in Business Manager said, “We see it as our duty to continue the momentum toward women’s empowerment, and we all have a role to play. A key first step is ensuring women and diverse populations build the education and confidence they need to reach their financial goals. As women grow more comfortable with their finances, they are more likely to continue exploring the finance industry and all it has to offer in the future either as members of the workforce or clients.”
One of the women entrepreneurs, Betty Mbaziira Kasabiiti, of Awa Foods, a dairy products processing company, was ecstatic about her latest achievements as a result of being part of the programme.
“I am grateful for the opportunity that dfcu Bank has given me to broaden my knowledge. Through the Rising Woman programme, I have managed to learn, increase my sales, advertise my products and gain more clients. Kenya is very big in the dairy sector in the region and I look forward to learning more from this trip,” Kasabiiti remarked.
“I am not a dfcu Bank customer, but I got to know about the programme through the media and I joined. I have been able to learn a lot on how to run my consultancy and be able to help other beneficiaries. Right now, we are focusing on earning through tourism and I hope that during this trip, I get to learn more about how to generate potential tourism revenues as well as tap into the Kenyan market through the connections we shall make,”said Kazoora Charlotte Mucunguzi another winner, with Sceck Consults, who specialize in youth and women economic empowerment trainings through financial advisory services.
This brings to twenty the number of women led businesses that have benefitted from the skills building study trips conducted in 2019 and 2020.
Edited by David Tumusiime
