Ugandan female entrepreneurs receive mentorship

A group of Ugandan business women spent a week on a visit to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city where they got opportunities to interface with successful Kenyan female entrepreneurs, learning from their stories. The women are winners under the ‘Rising Woman’, an initiative that recognises and rewards women in business through mentorship. Dfcu Bank in partnership with Daily Monitor and Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) sponsored the initiative and trip.

The women met prominent entrepreneurs such as Evelyn Mungai, proprietor of Evelyn College of Design Limited, Terry Mungai chief executive officer (CEO) of Ashley’s Beauty College and Beauty Shops, Esther Muchemi, group CEO of Samchi Group which runs Space International, Samchi Telecom, Mergut Telcoms Limited, Samchi Credit and After 40 Hotel, among others.

Words of wisdom
The Kenyan entrepreneurs were happy to share a number of lessons, common among them the need for integrity. Muchemi, who is also author of a booked titled Give Me My Mountain informed the Ugandan entrepreneurs that taking positive steps no matter the challenges they face, will lead them in the right direction.

“We should not celebrate success that is based on unethical practices. We all see the corrupt as role models in our societies for young people. There is another way of creating wealth, of building an empire. Let us start from somewhere, little by little, with values that you believe in and allow them to not only be your personal value but values that also govern your business,” Muchemi explains.

Evelyn Mungai, author of From Glass Ceilings to Open Skies, noted “The interesting thing about business is if you are successful, people start writing about you and how wonderful you are, then everybody goes into your kind of business. I keep telling women not to copy business because such businesses become saturated, which will lead them to close down. Stand out uniquely and build brands.”

The 70-year-old started the design school to train potential designers in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The school is now 42 years old and is one of the most respected institutions in the region, especially for fashion and interior design.
Under Ashley’s, Terry Mungai runs 16 beauty centres and a training school which has trained some 15,000 students in East Africa.

“My children are part of my business. It is good to bring the family into business so that you can create continuity because when my time comes to go or to retire, I want this dream and the business that I have worked so hard to realise, to continue,” she shares.

Mungai says the business was built on loans and she continues to borrow money from the bank to finance the continuity of the business.
“It has not been an easy ride. We do not have issues with borrowing because we have conducted ourselves well to our banks so when we go for funds, they give us, which goes to underscore the importance of having integrity in business. When you take a loan, make sure you pay it back on time.”

On managing 16 outlets and four training campuses, Mungai says that she has built systems.
“We have mentored managers and we make sure we grow them within the business. We train them hands-on. We have been building one branch at a time. They have been mentored from low to high level. We have installed CCTVs that enable me to see what is going on in each of the branches. You should give your managers targets but with incentives, apart from salary, so they are motivated,” she further explained. She employs 150 people and has a student capacity of 500.

Lessons learned
The lessons learnt by the Ugandan business women are many.
“I have gained insight on diverse approaches to business from prominent and very experienced entrepreneurs. I am also expanding my network given the interaction with the prize winners, speakers, dfcu Bank and Monitor staff members,” Sandra Bushuyu, a director at Beyond Edge, a youth-led company involved in documentation shared.

Bushuyu says she also learnt the importance of personal evaluation in the aspects of spirituality, physical fitness, financial progress, personality, aspiration, relationships and professionalism that were never incorporated in her work from the start.

“I believe this trip will enable our women generate better business ideas, be inspired by their Kenyan counterparts and are going to create connections that will go beyond ordinary business horizons. I urge the ladies to take this opportunity to explore the potential that will come along with it in order to take their businesses to the next level,” explains Victoria Byenkya, manager of the Women in Business under which the Rising Woman project is coordinated at dfcu bank.

To Elizabeth Namaganda, the brand manager of Monitor Publications Limited, being part of this great initiative has been inspirational and transformational for her as an individual and for the Rising Woman winners of 2018.

“It has been a fruitful engagement and our wish is that they take everything they have learnt during this trip, apply it in their businesses and become better than they are right now. I want to thank Dfcu bank and UIA for having been part of this initiative and supported it all the way. I also call upon the women out there to watch out for the 2019 programmes because this is an initiative every enterprising woman should be part of; its rewards are limitless,” she explains.

“One thing people never realise is how lonely the entrepreneurship journey can be. The country will celebrate you for employing a country mate that could have been out on the streets, jobless if it was not for your business. You go home but do not rest, you enter bed but do not sleep, you put food on your plate but cannot eat, because the reality of your obligation weighs you down,” narrates Manuela Pacutho, founder of The Craddle, a 24-hour infant care centre.

She adds, “Until you are lucky to be selected for the Rising Woman challenge, you would never hear from Terry Mungai that she had taken a $8,000 (Shs30m) loan from a loan shark to buy a salon business only to go to her bank job two months later and find the bank had been put under receivership. Or heard from Esther Muchemi about how she went to work one day and 60 of her employees had left without prior notice and her stock sat there staring at her. If it was not for the selfless initiatives by dfcu Bank, Daily Monitor and UIA, you would never understand that challenges are not a roadblock but a preparation for your greatness.”

Changed lives
“The workshop presenters have made a mark in our lives. We have been motivated by their stories. They told us how we can build sustainable business models, how to build strategic partnerships and the importance of investing in the right team, which have been valuable,” explains Linnet Nkunda Akol, Managing Director of Krystal Ice.