The Chairperson for Startup Uganda Mr. Richard Zulu has appealed to all stakeholders working to bolster the innovation space in Uganda to embrace concertedness for better results.
Mr. Zulu made these remarks on Tuesday, during the opening of Uganda Innovation Week 2022, a three-day largest gathering of the start-up ecosystem in Uganda at Mestil Hotel Kampala.
The event tailored around the theme; “Uganda’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, Unlocking the Missing Links” attracted a large number of investors, entrepreneurs, high-end personnel from the academia and a vast number of development partners.
The theme of the event was meticulously crafted in a way that is in tandem with connecting the dots between the academia and industry, in addition to women entrepreneurship.
“It takes working closely together in order for us to support entrepreneurs. Let’s work together, discuss together and see how best we can help solve this problem of unemployment,” said Mr. Zulu while delivering his speech in officiation of the event.
Mr. Zulu who was elaborative in his assertions said citizens of Uganda, chiefly the youth need a sustained and solid helping hand to be able to achieve an impressive and fundamental evolution in the field of innovations, so as to outdo the challenge of unemployment in the country.
“And my message is; solving unemployment through entrepreneurship and innovation is about the many young people, men and women of Uganda having the best support they need,” Mr. Zulu added.
Note has to be taken that there is an alarming high attrition rate of young start-ups in Uganda, due to several challenges like inadequate access to funding, inadequate adoption of technology to scale, inadequate access to expertise, poor financial management practices and ill adoption of technology to scale.
Against this background, experts at Startup Uganda sought to come up with mechanisms to resuscitate crumbling young start-ups, and also aid the existing ones in a variety of ways, such that they grow into scalable and sustainable enterprises, which explains the Uganda Innovation Week.
It should of course be remembered that Startup Uganda is an association of innovation and entrepreneurship support organizations working concertedly towards supporting the start-up ecosystem and sector, rooted in the fundamental belief that innovators are the driving source of economic social and environmental sustainable development.
In partnership with United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Startup Uganda commissioned the 2022 youth start-up survey, which is the study that explores the Uganda start-up ecosystem in relation to various factors that contribute to a good entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The official launch of this survey will be done on Thursday which will be the last day of the event.
Worth noting, Startup Uganda collaborated with International Trade Center (ITC) to commission a study that undertook an entrepreneurship ecosystem diagnosis system, with an in-depth assessment of entrepreneurship support organizations (ESO’s) like incubators, accelerators, innovation hubs, focus being types of support provided by ESO’s to entrepreneurs, at various stages of the business life cycle.
Most importantly, Startup Uganda has undertaken a regulatory impact assessment to determine the need for a start-up in the highly competitive entrepreneurial space through close collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Private Sector Foundation Uganda(PSFU) and Mastercard Foundation.
The Uganda Innovation Week is an annual engagement platform organized by Startup Uganda, in a carefully conceived strategy that brings together various stakeholders in the etrepreneurship ecosystem, to share knowledge about several strategies to boost the innovation space.
Such entrepreneurial engagement platforms, the likes of what is happening at Mestil Hotel were launched in 2019 by Startup Uganda.
The event also provides a favorable arena for major players in the entrepreneurial space to celebrate their successes, provide visibility and connect various ecosystem actors.
Startup Uganda also comprises 23 entrepreneurship support organizations, including incubators, accelerators, skilling institutions, academic institutions and it is charged with a responsibility of building the collective capacity of these institutions to serve entrepreneurs better, improve the visibility of the ecosystem and advocate for an enabling environment through research.
The Innovation Week is being sponsored by United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), NSSF Hi innovator, Mastercard Foundation Uganda, Youth Startup Academy, International Trade Center (ITC) Sponsor Innovations Lab, Village Capital, Innovation Village, the French Embassy, Konrad Adenauer Center and Response innovation lab.
Chairperson of Start-Up Uganda Mr. Richard Zulu
Committed to creating an enabling environment where start ups can access the support they need to start and grow
The last edition attracted over 6000 online attendees, over 400 in person attention of which 67% were identified as female
Network analysis on the types of linkages and collaborations between various organizations in the ecosystems, and views and experiences of entrepreneurs receiving support from the ecosystem
Most Importantly, the Partnership between the Ministry of trade, Industry and cooperatives, Private sector Foundation Uganda in support from Mastercard Foundation, where we are undertaking a regulatory impact assessment to determine the need for a start up act.
Collaborating through the business process outsourcing council, to define a business process outsourcing policy.
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