USE working on products to support women businesses
The Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative seeks to support women-led businesses by mobilizing patient capital. Photo / File
What you need to know:
- Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative is an extension of International Women’s Day through which the UN is seeking to support women in technology under the DigitAll: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality” theme.
Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) has said it is working on products through which it will use crowdfunding to raise capital to fund women-founded and led businesses.
This, USE said, is part of the larger plan through which women-led business will access patient capital as well as supporting women-led businesses to prosper.
Speaking at the Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative in Kampala, Mr Paul Bwiso, the USE chief executive officer, said most women-led businesses are not in the range of enterprises that have access to patient capital, which exposes them to expensive loans.
Therefore, he said, USE is considering a number of models that are specifically looking at helping businesses, especially women-led, to raise capital.
Mr Bwiso explained that one of the models that USE is considering is crowdfunding through which money is mobilised and extended to a business for onward expansion.
“It is a new concept we are looking into and trying to find a solution at the level of the stock exchange,” he said.
The Ring the Bell for Gender Equality initiative seeks to support women by working with organisations such as the USE to innovate ways through which they can raise patient capital. It is an extension of International Women’s Day through which the UN is seeking to support women in technology under the DigitAll: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality” theme.
Mr Bwiso also noted that through stock markets, USE is building products to promote women-led investment and saving inititative, among which include recently launched ‘Edaala’ product, which is a USE specialist market.
