BOMBO — Four years ago, Hadijah Nantale was working as a waitress, earning Shs3,000 a day.
Today, she works in a metal workshop in Bombo, where she can earn between Shs10,000 and Shs20,000 a day. She saves half of what she makes and has already bought two plots of land, with plans to build rental houses.
Her transformation is part of a larger story unfolding at Zebra Metal Workshop Youth Group Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO), a youth-led enterprise along the Kampala-Gulu highway that has grown from 23 struggling young people into a 94-member group engaged in metal fabrication, construction work, training and savings.
And there is something else changing inside the workshop: women are increasingly taking up jobs that were once considered the preserve of men.
“I joined metal work because, as women, we often think these jobs are meant for men,” Nantale says. “But a woman can do any kind of work depending on her needs and determination.”
That change is visible in the workshop.
Nanteza Pamela, the youth group chairperson under Zebra SACCO, joined initially as an accountant but later learnt welding, body filling and painting. She says she can earn about Shs50,000 a day, saving about Shs20,000.
She has used her earnings to start a salon where she employs another person and plans to venture into poultry, goat and pig farming.
“So far, four girls are working at the workshop,” she says.
For Zebra Metal Workshop Youth Group, however, the story began with scarcity.
From 23 young people to 94 members
Zebra Metal Workshop Youth Group started in 2017 with 23 young people, many of whom had been unable to continue with school because their families could not afford fees.
Yusuf Sekamate, secretary and a founding member, says the group began with little capital and almost no customers. “We did not have money, but we started slowly and kept working,” he says.
The group initially relied on members’ own contributions. Clients were reluctant to trust the young welders, while the limited capital made it difficult to buy materials and complete orders on time.
The turning point came when Bombo Town Council introduced the group to the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC), which provided financing that enabled the young people to expand their operations.
Sekamate says the first loan, received in 2021, was Shs30 million. The money was used to buy materials and expand the business. The group later accessed additional financing, eventually reaching Shs50 million.
According to Sekamate, the financing allowed the group to buy equipment including a generator and compressor, while members also began accessing loans for their individual needs.
Membership has since risen from 23 to 94. The change is not only numerical.
Before the financing, Sekamate says, some members stayed for only three to six months because they could not see a future in the group. As the business grew, members began staying longer, earning income and investing outside the workshop.
“Some have built homes and others have bought plots of land,” he says.
The group now works with builders and carries out metal fabrication and maintenance work for institutions, including Ndejje University, Ndejje Secondary School and Bombo Secondary School. It also worked on windows for the Egypt-Uganda Company.
Sekamate says the group can now generate about Shs100 million a year.
The money is not only in the workshop
For the young people at Zebra, the value of the financing is not simply the amount borrowed.
It is what happens after the money reaches the workshop.
Members save according to their daily earnings, with contributions starting from as little as Shs5,000 every day. Sekamate says the SACCO has accumulated about Shs60 million in savings.
At the end of the year, members meet to review their finances and share profits.
MSC has also trained members in financial literacy, including savings, financial management and the productive use of money.
The Microfinance Support Centre says its financing model is intended to give SACCOs, Microfinance Institutions, and organised groups access to affordable financial services and support enterprises to expand. Its conventional finance programme provides credit to SACCOs, VSLAs and organised groups, including enterprises involved in small-scale manufacturing and other productive activities.
The wider Emyooga programme also specifically targets welders, women entrepreneurs and youth among its enterprise categories.
Tadeo Atuhura, Head of Communications at the Microfinance Support Centre, says Zebra demonstrates what can happen when young people organise themselves and gain access to affordable credit.
The financing, he says, is not only about lending money; it is about mobilising young people to establish enterprises, create employment and generate incomes.
“They have accessed financing from the MSC, and they have been able to grow because of the affordable credit provided by the Government. The financing has supported them to establish themselves and, importantly, to create jobs for young people so that they do not end up loitering without productive work,” Tadeo noted.
“The members can access money at a much lower interest rate than they would get from a commercial bank. If this group went to a bank, for example, they might face interest rates of almost 28 percent. Here, they are accessing financing at eight percent per year, which makes it much more affordable,” he added.
A woman in a welding workshop
Nantale’s story illustrates the shift.
Before joining Zebra, she had no background in metal fabrication. She watched young people working and earning money and began asking a simple question: why couldn’t she do the same?
She learnt welding and now earns several times what she was making as a waitress.
Her ambitions have moved with her income.
She has bought two plots and wants to build rental houses that can provide an income even when she is no longer working in the workshop. “I earn money and save,” she says.
Nanteza’s journey has followed a different route.
She entered the group as an accountant but discovered that the practical work in the workshop could earn more. It took her about a year to learn the trade before she began working.
She now combines welding, body filling and painting with running her salon.
The workshop has therefore become more than a place where young people learn to weld. It has become a space where assumptions about who is supposed to do what kind of work are being tested against economics.
Training the next generation
Zebra’s ambitions extend beyond its own membership.
Sekamate says the group has trained more than 500 young people since 2017, particularly those who could not afford to continue with formal education.
Some trainees have found work in Uganda’s oil sector, while others have gone abroad, including to South Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
“Three trainees were recruited by oil companies in Hoima after undergoing training at Zebra,” he says.
For young people who may otherwise have been excluded from formal education, the workshop offers another route into employment: learn a practical skill, earn an income, save, borrow and eventually start something of your own.
What happens next?
Success has created a new problem: space.
The workshop’s growing membership and customer base have left the group looking for a larger site.
Sekamate says the SACCO has already bought land and wants to develop a larger facility capable of accommodating up to 200 members, including those working at the workshop and those deployed in the field. The group also wants to increase its membership and eventually build its own permanent premises.
