URSB to train business owners in financial management, literacy

Uganda Registration Services Bureau has started a five-day training for business owners on among other financial management and literacy to enable them grow but also survive the tides.

The training is being conducted at the URSB headquarters in Kampala.

According to Allan Kakungulu, the manager registration and compliance at URSB the training will skill business owners on how to better manage them well so as to survive.

“The business owners will receive tips on how to effectively run them, how to pay taxes , have proper books of accounts, auditors and structures to run businesses.  We want to provide skills to participants in basic corporate governance practices and train them on general business management practices necessary for business growth and survival,” Kakungulu said.

“With this training, we will train the business owners on the available corporate rescue mechanisms both in the law and in practice but to also create a platform for sharing and learning from experiences by business experts and amongst the business owners.”

Robert Mugabe, the  Director Insolvency and Receivership at URSB said the business owners will get tips on how to avoid insolvency.

“They will be trained on entrepreneurial and business management skills, financial illiteracy, and basic corporate governance structures by giving them  necessary skills to avoid business insolvency and the dangers associated with poor business management,” Mugabe  said.

He explained that in developing an efficient insolvency system, it is crucial to equip all actors to enable them deal decisively with issues that cause financial distress to business as well as individuals while according support to viable businesses to thrive in the economy.

“ This would definitely involve a reasonable understanding of best practices in the field of insolvency law. We therefore want to develop skills of the business owners to partake in the campaign to keep businesses thriving.”

In 2016, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report ranked Uganda among the world’s top entrepreneurial country.

The report, however, showed that the rate of failure of businesses in Uganda was one of the highest in the world, citing that for every business that was started, another closed.

According to URSB officials, this high rate of failure is attributed to inadequate entrepreneurial and business management skills, financial illiteracy, lack of basic corporate governance structures, unforeseen occurrences such as COVID-19 and the resultant public health measures among others.

“These deficiencies or shortcomings equally affect the solvency of these entities, hence their unviability. Therefore, emphasis on corporate rescue is the ultimate cure and this training will help on this,” Kakungulu said.