By KT Reporter
The Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) initiative has successfully disbursed 54.3% of its initial loan target, but communication challenges continue to create a grim picture about the project’s overall success. GROW, a USD 217 million initiative, aims to increase access to entrepreneurial services for women entrepreneurs across Uganda, including those in refugee and host communities. Its flagship program is the GROW Loans Facility.
As of the latest report from the project Secretariat, loans have been extended to 2,175 entrepreneurs, representing 54.3% of the 4,007 set target for the first two years. “For those borrowing between 4 to 20 million, the target for the two years is 1,997, of which 1,629 have been served. For those borrowing between 20 to 50 million, the target is 1,139, with 284 having accessed. And for those between 40 to 200 million, of the 311 target, 262 have been achieved,” the report details.
These borrowers have assumed a total of UGX 50.224 billion. “Most of these loans, 85 percent, have been obtained with land as collateral, with 57 percent having land titles and 28 percent using sales agreements,” the report further notes. A breakdown of loan recipients reveals that most borrowers operate in Trade & Commerce (43.5%, 947 borrowers), followed by Agriculture & Agribusiness (25.4%, 552 borrowers).
Construction & Engineering represents 11.6% (252 borrowers), while Business & Professional Services make up 7.9% (172 borrowers). Smaller sectors include Tourism, Hospitality & Creatives (3.5%), Beauty, Cosmetology & Wellness (2.6%), Manufacturing (2.2%), Education & Health (1.9%), Transport & Logistics (1.2%), and Others (0.2%).
By age, the majority of borrowers (53.2%) are between 31 and 55 years old, representing the active working-age demographic, with only 4.2% being young women aged 18–30. Over half of the borrowers (54.8%) are married. Geographically, the project has seen greater uptake in the Buganda region, particularly Greater Kampala/Mengo (45.4%), followed by Greater Masaka (9.7%) and other regions. Notably, refugee-hosting districts have seen limited participation, accounting for only 3% (64 loans), with Kamwenge leading at 51 loans.
Despite these achievements, project managers have voiced concerns about inadequate communication, which has hindered the project’s broader understanding. “Because of inadequate communication, many times out there, people judge GROW on the basis of just one component of the many services that this project is supposed to offer,” explained Aggrey Kibenge, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development.
Kibenge highlighted an example of a Ugandan who publicly expressed concerns to President Museveni about alleged discrimination in GROW loan distribution, citing a recent political rally. He attributed such sentiments to an ongoing communication gap: “This has not only affected GROW but other projects, including PDM, which has seven pillars, but focus is only on the money component.”
To overcome this challenge, Kibenge called for increased collaboration with the media to clear any misconceptions. “GROW can be and will be a game-changer, if we get over the conceptual confusions that there might be about GROW. On top of all the communication we have so far done, we are cognizant that no amount of communication is enough until the message is successfully delivered,” he concluded-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
