Women in Trade should prioritize Standards, Collaborations and Proper Use of Technology.

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 3^rd Annual URA Women’s Conference 2020 at Hotel Africanna on 04/03/2020.