Global Entrepreneurship Week / Uganda

    Graduate Empowerment Programme Update

    Minister Awards Outstanding Young Graduate Entrepreneurs

    Enterprise Uganda made good its promise to reward outstanding young graduate entrepreneurs with token cash prizes to expand their businesses. The young entrepreneurs were among a group of over 80 graduates who started their own enterprises immediately after attending the Graduate Empowerment Programme Workshop in October 2007.
    Presiding over the Awards Ceremony held at Kampala Sheraton Hotel on July 15, the Minister of State for Finance (Investments), Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka urged the young entrepreneurs to stay the good course they had started. "Although today you may be running humble enterprises, you are our beacons of hope for making Uganda play its rightful place in global trade and investment", he said.

    Prof. Kiwanuka commended all the young entrepreneurs for withstanding the numbing public opinion; defying peer pressure and boldly rewriting the prevalent counsel from parents and career experts about the illusionary “Good Job” promise. He noted that none of the award winners went to any bank or microfinance institution to source for capital before starting their enterprises but considered mainly the internal sources at their disposal.
    "Some of these educated youths had no formal education in the sectors that they ventured into. A bio-chemist is now running a local dish restaurant; a lawyer is supplying healthy snacks to middle and upper income clients working in prestigious offices; a graduate of Humanities is a proud Managing Director of a cottage poultry farm. Interestingly, even continuing students who attended the programme were able to attend classes while managing side businesses for meeting their college fees", he observed.

    For more information on the testimonies log on to http://www.enterprise.co.ug/graduateprgm.htm 



    Graduate Empowerment Program
    “Empowering Graduates to create jobs”


    Enterprise Uganda, supported by Government of Uganda launched the Graduate Empowerment Program (GEP) in March 2007 to empower graduates from universities and tertiary institutions to create jobs rather than chase a few jobs. The program is expected to supplement on-going efforts by government to address rising unemployment and reduce vulnerability of the youth to criminal activities. According to available statistics, approximately 9,000 new jobs are created annually against an outlay of 29,000 graduates, representing an unemployment rate of 70%. The GEP is therefore an important vehicle for providing self-employment, bridging the unemployment gap and enhancing economic growth through self-determination.
    Todate, 584 graduates have been in entreprenuership and business skills to start their own enterprises.

    Program Objectives:

    The overall objective of the program is to build the capacity of young people to participate in employment creation. It targets graduates from the Year 2000 to-date. It provides entrepreneurship and business skills to graduates to enable them start their own businesses.In less than 8 months more than 40% of the programme beneficiaries identified business opportunities, concretized their business ideas and proceeded to start and operate their businesses! Interestingly, even continuing students who attended the programme were able to attend classes while managing side businesses for meeting their college fees.


    Areas the graduates have ventured into:

    1. Secretarial services;
    2. Consultancy services;
    3. Compound maintenance and cleaning;
    4. Manufacturing of shopping paper bags;
    5. Sale of snacks & fruit salads;
    6. Catering services;
    7. Training in business skills;
    8. Advertising and Marketing services;
    9. Planting and Sale of flowers;
    10. Piggery;
    11. Barber and Beauty Shops;
    12. Produce trade;
    13. Cottage agro-processing;
    14. Micro finance for students;
    15. Design and Printing Services;
    16. Art, Craft and Gift Shops;
    17. Brick making and supply;
    18. Investment in Stock exchange shares; (Capital Markets)
    19. Real estate and land agents;
    20. Sale of used items (clothes, Shoes; hand bags etc)
    21. Day care and Nurseries;
    22. Sale and supply of Fresh Fish;
    23. Road Construction services;
    24. Bridal services;
    25. Mushroom growing and Sale;
    26. Rearing of Poultry birds;
    27. Recording and Sale of music;
    28. Rearing rabbits for meat;
    29. Growing Food crops (maize growing);
    30. Hardware shops;
    31. Educational entertainment;
    32. Accounting and Market Research services and
    33. Small scale cottage industries.

    Posted : 5 Months, 2 Weeks, 2 Days, 15 Hours, 41 Minutes ago | Edited : 3 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, 5 Hours, 35 Minutes ago

Global activities to link all countries

In addition to thousands of activities being planned by partners , a few signature activities are designed to connect bright young minds across the globe.

Unleash It!

While there is no shortage of challenges facing the world today, countless ideas never come to the surface—leaving problems unsolved and opportunities missed—simply because no one stopped to consider them. Unleash It! uncovers these challenges—then links them to enterprising problem-solvers.

Before we can unleash the ideas of the next generation of entrepreneurs on the challenges of today, we need your help in identifying those challenges – no matter how big or how small. Anyone can post a challenge, e-mail your challenges to challenges [at] unleashingideas [dot] org

Speednetwork the Globe.

Networking is a skill that serves everyone—whether they ever consider starting an entrepreneurial venture or not. Organize a speed networking session in your community and enable local young people to sharpen their networking skills—talking to each other, local entrepreneurs, potential investors, community leaders, or anyone else interested in learning from – and sharing with – others. E-mail cspavin [at] unleashingideas [dot] org to learn more about what you can do to help network aspiring entrepreneurs.