The Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), in partnership with the African Management Institute (AMI) has launched initiatives to provide practical, accessible learning and development solutions to African businesses and professionals.
This will be through promoting the development of new quality standards for Business Development Standards as well as training the providers to address the supply challenges particularly for specialised areas.
The African Management Institute (AMI) will provide practical and accessible learning and development solutions to African businesses and professionals working with the technical working group, which is composed of key industry experts, Key Government officials and representatives from the entrepreneurship support organisations.
In his remarks, Francis Kisirinya, the Chief Membership Officer at PSFU said, ‘’Every stakeholder has a distinct role that is essential to achieve our common objective which is enterprise development. Our core mandate is to ensure continous transformation of the economy through the promotion and development sustainable and successful enterprises that are able to lead to economic growth and wealth creation.’’
He added: ‘’The BDS system is characterized by various constraints that limit its potential to generate business growth. PSFU through the infrastructure project in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation decided to contribute to the process of streamlining BDS services’’.
Johnson Abitekaniza, the Assistant Commissioner MSME, Ministry of Trade Industries and Cooperatives said, ‘’We are here today to encourage business support service providers who are out there to start registering for the training that will come after the registration. The sensitization will help us educate and make sure that the public is very much aware of these standards and what they mean to be able to participate. We believe that through this, the service providers will be motivated to join and be trained so that they are better BDS service providers than they are now.
He added: ‘’For enforcement, when the Uganda National Bureau of Standards gazettes the standards, we are to leverage, we will work out an enforcement mechanism that will be used, although for the start, they will be used as benchmarks that will be utilised by the BDS service providers in the ecosystem, as we will work closely with UNBS to achieve this as we target majority of businesses in the private sector’’.
The two standards have been developed and submitted to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) for approval and gazette.
In efforts to implement the developed standards, the PSFU has launched a program that details the various training and engagements with the various BDS service providers and users in the country.
The campaign will also equip organisations, entrepreneurs, and business professionals with information on Uganda’s newly formulated business development support standards, tools, mentorship and resources needed to drive sustainable business growth.
In addition, through a combination of mentorship, workshops, and strategic resources, participants will gain insights on business development standards, Acquire practical strategies to navigate business challenges and seize opportunities, Establish meaningful connections within the business community and Access a suite of resources, including training and practical online tools.
