My dear friends, I am so happy to see you today as we
commemorate International Women’s Day.
I want to thank URA Commissioner General Madam Doris Akol and
Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) for organizing the 2020 Women in
Trade Conference. At this event, we are discussing how we can collaborate and
support each other to achieve Trade Prosperity.
I have been invited here to share with you the new trade
opportunities, benefits and challenges for women in East Africa and the rest of
the World plus how best we can exploit these opportunities to our betterment.
But before I give my submission, allow me tell you that
Uganda has the highest number of women entrepreneurs in the world, standing at
about 30 per cent across the country. This surely requires a huge round of
applause.
As Ugandan women, we
must celebrate each other for the great work we are doing. Even amidst a lot of
challenges that we continue to face, we must always remember that as women, we
are giving our country a great global rating.
Further, different studies indicate that whenever a woman
gets money, she uses about 60 per cent of that money on feeding her children,
paying school fees, and improving her families in general. This means that
whenever a woman earns money; her family, community and entire country
benefits.
It is thus great to see the Government of Uganda through
Uganda Revenue Authority organizing such gatherings that pass on important
information to women in business and women in trade because women will develop
our Country.
My presentation highlights three major elements that are
crucial if women are to prosper in Uganda, East Africa and the rest of the
World.
The first issue is quality standards for products. The goods
that we intend to export must meet quality standards. The body charged with
standards here is Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS). If you have any
product that you want to sell in Uganda, Kenya and the rest of the region, you
must make sure that this product has a UNBS certification.
The previous speakers have talked about collaborations. I
want to emphasize the same. We need to create associations, cooperatives and
SACCOs. For example, if you are a honey producer and you go alone to UNBS to
acquire a certification, you will pay about UGX 800,000. Yet if you go as a
group with a minimum of at least 20 members all dealing in Honey, UNBS will
charge you about UGX 350,000 not UGX 800,000 for the first year.
Even still, because you are one organized association of 20
women, you can collectively raise the money required for the certification.
With a UNBS certificate you are able to put your product on the shelves of
Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan among others. And after July 2020, when
the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area kicks off, you
will be able to sell your products in supermarkets in places as far as
Nigeria.
It is very important that every value-added product is
certified. We must know what is required
to get that certification because if a product doesn’t have a standards certificate,
it will not be exported anywhere.
The other issue is the simplified trade regime. Whenever you
are selling goods below UGX6 million (about USD2,000) across the border in East
African countries, you are not supposed to pay any taxes. But to be able to do
this, there is a certificate you need. The certificate or origin is online and
you must file it before you take the goods. For the case of Democratic Republic
of Congo, for goods below UGX 1.5 million (about USD500), you still don’t pay taxes.
But you must have downloaded and filled the certificate.
All these relate to technology. Different speakers have noted
that if we are not using technology (internet, laptops and phones), we shall
continue to lag behind.
Research studies indicate that only 15 per cent of women use technology
in their business or trade, compared to about 80 per cent men that use technology
in trade and business.
This is a serious problem that makes women less competitive.
Everything you need to do is on the internet. You won’t be able to do international
business and trade without the Internet.
With the coming Africa Continental Free Trade Area, you can’t
single-handedly sell goods in Senegal, Kenya, South Sudan and Tanzania on the
same day. Yet you can be based here in Kampala and sell your goods to all those
countries using technology and e-commerce.
We need to make good use of ICTs.
As women, we have children that we have educated. Some are in
their vacation and ask you to buy for them smart phones. Buying for them phones
is okay, but we should also make good use of these students when they are still
studying. Let them (students) teach you how to use technology for business and
trade. Tell them that you what to use internet to grow your business and let
them get you started by taking you through the different steps. Our children
are well equipped when it comes to ICTs and Internet because these are
innovations of their times.
It is very important that as women we use the internet to
grow our businesses. As women, we are lagging behind because we are not using
internet and ICTs in our businesses. Like you have been told by the earlier speakers,
trade and tax related information is freely available on URA web portal.
But because you don’t use the internet, you end up going to a
broker who will not only charge you highly but also give you wrong information.
This is free information. If we can close this gap, we shall further grow our
businesses.
The other issue challenging us women in trade and business is
limited access to finance and capital. Most of us women don’t own land,
buildings or any other serious property that can be used as collateral to secure
loan facilities. As such, because we lack collateral, we end up not getting
loans required to boost our businesses, yet men have this collateral and easily
get credit facilities. I request you to continue working together in groups
because some financial services are comfortable when dealing with organized
associations not individuals. It will be easy for a group of 20 women dealing
in a similar product, with proper certification and booking keeping to get a
credit facility from a financial institution compared to an individual. Like I
said earlier, working together as women is a must.
As I conclude, allow me tell you that TradeMark East Africa –
the organisation that I work for, signed an agreement with URA to empower women
under the URA Women Traders’ Facilitation Framework. Among the key
issues that this program will address is certification, sensitization, training
on internet use and training on e-commerce among others. I strongly believe
that this project will help women traders a lot. It is my hope that KACITA will
also join URA and TradeMark East Africa on this journey of helping women grow
their businesses, earn more profits, transform their families, and further
develop Uganda.
Thank YOU for listening to me.
NOTE: This is the English translation of my
Luganda speech that I delivered at the 3rd Annual URA Women’s
Conference 2020 at Hotel Africanna on 04/03/2020.