Bank gives financial training to Mbuya youth

Priorities. There is need to carry out intensive sensitisation so as to change attitudes among the country’s youth regarding values of employment.

With the high rate of unemployment in Uganda, many youth have resorted to venturing into entrepreneurship. However, they lack efficient knowledge to run and maintain businesses; so many of them collapse within the first year of start-up.

While other youth blame the social, political and economic environment, youths in Mbuya have decided to take the problem in their stride by seeking financial literacy training from Centenary Bank.
“We have identified Centenary Bank to train us in business skills because of their expertise in micro financing,” said Patrick Kaahwa, a 31-year-old private clinic owner and leader of the group.
“Through the training, we hope to obtain knowledge on how to efficiently operate and expand our businesses,” he adds.

The two-hour needs assessment session of the youths was in preparation for training to address the identified business gaps.

While addressing the youths, the National Coordinator for ILO - Youth Entrepreneurship Facility in Uganda, Mr Robert Mawanda, noted that most young entrepreneurs were passionate about business but didn’t know how to run them.

“We are going to train the youth on how to manage their personal and business finances among other aspects in order to help them boost their businesses,” Mr Mawanda said.
The Centenary Bank Corporate Communications Manager, Ms Allen Ayebare, commended the group for their enthusiasm in business growth. ‘’The youths have great potential to grow their businesses, they approached us seeking opportunities for skill and knowledge acquisition. We will certainly provide them with financial literacy training basing on their needs as we have noted through this interaction. We believe with this they will be able to grow their businesses and overcome challenges therein,’’ she said.

Business, boutiques, boda boda
The fifty young entrepreneurs are operating businesses that include salons, boutiques, boda-bodas, printeries, furniture marts and health centres. They will be trained under a programme run by Centenary Bank and International Labour Organisation, which aims at empowering youth countrywide with financial skills.

The two-year programme that was started in October last year has so far trained 60 youths under Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) and aims to reach over 700 youths overall.
The training is part of Centenary Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility financial literacy program that is reaching out to over five million people through different partnerships with other organisations including Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), ABI Trust and Techonoserve.

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