Up to 150 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will benefit from an accounting and financial systems program organized by the Uganda Investment Authority(UIA), Ministry of Trade, Imuka Access, East Africa Venture Capital Association and the University of Chicago , Booth School of Business.
According to Roy Masiga, the lead at Imuka Access, the program aims at supporting the future growth, development and access to finance opportunities for SMEs.
“This program has been established due to limited financing and investments in SMEs in the country resulting from informal nature of their business operations, lack of knowledge, lack of relevant documentation due to poor accounting and financial management practices,”Masiga said.
He explained that as part of the program, there will be dedicated personalized training, coaching the implementation and adoption of accounting and financial management practices by a highly trained external professional financial expert over a period of three months.
“Participants will gain a deeper understanding of costing methodologies, financial record keeping best practices and budgeting and financial planning techniques among other valuable business skills.”
Speaking during the launch, Winnie Lawoko Olwe, the director in charge of the domestic investment division in the Uganda Investment Authority explained that such training will help many businesses formalize their operations.
“At UIA we hold a big vision of seeing domestic investors transform. Transformation will require a complete turnaround because we are playing in a global environment that critically requires that we are transparent, accessible and visible. Our ethical and globally acceptable practices should be the best ones,”Lawoko Olwe noted.
She noted that the program has come at a time when many businesses don’t live to experience their second birthday.
“This program will help address issues of internal competitiveness of SMEs but also address internal liabilities like failure to file returns, register businesses. We are eager to participate and contribute to this program to ensure our entrepreneurs keep proper accounting and financial records which can be presented for financing and investment opportunities.”
According to Doris Acheng, the country representative for the East Africa Venture Capital Association, the program will help bridge gaps that SMEs have been experiencing in their day today running of business.
“Many of the businesses lack the knowhow and resources to develop systems and processes on their own. This limits the number of enterprises that are able to file for private investments and better capital providers. Therefore, technical assistance programs like this one are therefore important in addressing this gap as they provide the needed support for enterprises,”Acheng said.
According to officials, benefitting SMEs should have created more than 10 full time jobs as a way of helping them become more attractive to financing and growing sustainably while creating more job opportunities.