STRATEGY TO DEMYSTIFY THE GLOBAL TRADE ARENA SECRETS

PSFU, Mastercard partner to train business development service providers

Courtesy/File Photo: PSFU, Chief Programs and Projects Officer, Ambassador Damali Ssali, addressing the BDS Trainees.

observor.ug, December 6, 2023 | In a bid to drive sustainable growth of businesses, the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) in partnership with Mastercard Foundation is conducting a training of more than 200 business development services (BDS) providers across the country. 

Titled; GrowthPartners Program, BDS participants were drawn from a pool of at least 1,000 applications that underwent a competitive evaluation process based on their placement and ability to impact enterprise development in their respective communities.

Speaking at the opening of the training at Emin Pasha Hotel in Nakasero Tuesday, PSFU chief programmes and projects officer, Damali Ssali, said the participants would be equipped with information on Uganda’s newly formulated business development support standards, tools, mentorship, and resources needed to drive the growth of enterprises.

The African Management Institute is leading the training with tips on accessing finance for their businesses, strategic business planning, streamlining operations, and managing people, among others. 

“PSFU has been running various projects to support businesses but the impact has been minimal in some enterprises. We discovered that the BDS ecosystem was characterized by various constraints that limit its potential to generate business growth,” Ssali said. 

She added: “Therefore, PSFU through the Lead Firm Project in partnership with Mastercard FoundationLead Firm Project in partnership with Mastercard Foundation decided to contribute to the process of streamlining BDS service delivery by supporting the development of quality standards.”

The BDS standards, now awaiting certification by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), were developed by a technical working group which, among others, comprised officials from the ministry of Trade and PSFU. At least two standards have been finalized but the plan is to set up 10 BDS standards. 

“We felt the need to train the private sector about these standards. Normally, standards are developed on paper but there is no training on how to comply with them. When people are well versed with the standards, it will make our companies more competitive both locally and internationally. This is when we shall be able to export more goods to the region and beyond,” she said. 

According to Ssali, PSFU has so far identified two limitations to business growth; lack of skills to manage businesses and insufficient funds to run the business. She believes that after the training, the BDS providers will be best placed to sensitize business owners who hardly notice gaps in their operations and the standards expected of them in the market.

BETTER SERVICE DELIVERY

The small medium enterprises (SMEs) are also expected to have a diverse range of BDS providers across the country that are equipped with practical strategies to navigate business challenges and seize opportunities. According to the investment specialist in charge of partnerships and engagements at PSFU, Cecilia Kengoro Mutabanura, there will be improved service delivery among the BDS providers after the two-day training.

“We have been seeing inadequate services offered to enterprises by BDS providers out there. After all these years of PSFU giving support to the enterprises, they were not giving the impact that we are looking for. For the outstanding BDS providers, their services are expensive,” Kengoro said. 

She added: “We thought that if we can be able to raise the competencies of a good number of BDS providers, more enterprises would have access to good quality services at affordable prices.”

The BDS services, mainly non-financial such as technical advice, incubations, marketing, consultancy, and management support, are intended to bring out growth or transformation of the businesses. Kengoro said similar BDS trainings have also been held in Mbale, Gulu, Mbarara, and Fort portal in the past three weeks and trainees will continuously receive support to catalyze business growth wherever they are placed.

BENEFICIARIES SPEAK

Dona Sava – Programmes and Projects Lead at Hive Colab

The training is all about ensuring that BDS providers are regulated and operating in a manner that is appealing to our clients. There are many service providers out there but the standards are not only going to regulate us but also expand our networks.

We shall graduate and eventually become certified BDS service providers on the PSFU portal. We hope to use the standards from the training to serve our entrepreneurs better. This will also help them to grow their businesses.

Hassan Sekajoolo – Youth Livelihood Development

This organization works to develop micro-enterprises for youths in the country by taking incomes to the poorest youth. The training is crucial for us because we are working towards eradicating youth unemployment. However, we are getting skills on how to provide this business development support to these young people in the simplest terms to grow from micro-enterprises to big cooperations. 

Joan Kyokutamba – executive director of Shungura Foundation

There are several unemployed youths who don’t know how to seek employment. They have been pushed to create their jobs but their parents didn’t nurture them into this space. BDS providers think this particular space is a professional one that no one should tap into.

However, I have realized that there’s a need to improve our service provision market so that we tap into larger markets and get bigger clientele through such training. 

UGANDA'S STELLAR LADY EXECUTIVE BANDWAGON ENGULFS THE CAPITAL MARKETS AUTHORITY

 Josephine Ossiya: What awaits the new capital markets boss?

Courtesy/File Photo:  Josephine Okui Ossiya – CPA, FCCA, MBA, incoming Chief Executive Officer, Capital Markets Authority – Uganda (CMA).

What you need to

 know:

monitor.co.ug, Dec 6, 2023 10:43 AM | Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has appointed Ms Josephine Okui Ossiya as the new chief executive officer. She will take office on February 5, 2024.

She ends a drought of a female executives at CMA and will effectively replace Mr Keith Kalyegira, whose two five non-renewable terms ends this year. He had held the position since 2013.

Under his rein, large corporations, including Airtel, MTN, and Cipla Quality Chemical, have listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange and has expanded USE market capitalisation to Shs11.8 trillion. 

“Mr Kalyegira’s commitment extended beyond market expansion. He spearheaded the issuance of Shs110b in private and public debt, broadening the investor landscape and fostering economic growth through a more diversified financial system,” CMA said in a statement.

He has also been instrumental in increasing public understanding of capital markets, as evidenced by the Collective Investment Schemes (CISs), which attracted 65,000 new investors and injected Shs2.2 trillion into the market.

However, the new boss must take on more to feed a market that seems to have a lot of hunger. 

 

It is troubling to understand why the stock market has remained an unappealing avenue for large companies in need of cheap long-term capital.

 

Despite the rising cost of commercial debt, which averages at 18 percent for prime borrowers, no major corporations, save Kakira Sugar Works, have issued corporate bonds. 

Kakira Sugar Works is currently running a Shs76b bond, through which it had sought to raise capital in 2013. This is disturbing.

To-date, only nine corporate bonds have been issued in Uganda, raising a combined Shs289b, with majority of the issuers being financial institutions in the banking sector.

Issuing bonds is one way for companies to raise money. A bond functions as a loan between an investor and a corporation. The investor agrees to give the corporation a certain amount of money for a specific period of time. In exchange, the investor receives periodic interest payments.

CMA says that most companies issue corperate bonds when they are expanding but have failed to understand the alternative resource sourcing capital markets provide.

CMA and Financial Sector Deepening – Africa are currently working together to review the 2003 Corporate Bond Guidelines with the goal of facilitating the process of raising alternative non-bank financing for project development and business expansion for a greater number of local governments and private companies.

The amendments seek to expand the range of debt products that can be issued, and switch from merit-based approval to disclosure-based approval, among other things. 

Green bonds, municipal bonds, and infrastructure bonds are among the products that will be impacted.

Ms Ossiya will also have to work with a market at a time when sovereign investors are showing less interest in buying into companies that are presumed to be a hot sale. 

Airtel would be the best example to illustrate this. Its initial public offering attracted no off shore investor and was only saved by a deadline day purchase by National Social Security Fund, which, as the only institutional investor, bought 10.55 percent of the 20 percent offer.  

This resulted in a 58.18 percent undersubscription. 

Beyond this, Ms Ossiya must address the market’s liquidity challenges. 

Many investors who buy into publicly traded companies struggle to sell. 

Recently some investors tried to sell Airtel stocks right after the company had been listed, but received relatively low bids, according to data from Crested Capital, a stock broker.

This creates posterity challenges and results into market agitation. 

Ms Ossiya will also have to get tough on investor protection. A recent breach of USE investor data, some of which is very personal, put the entire equity markets at risk and ponzi schemes seem to have re-emerged, disguising themselves as licensed collective investment schemes. 

For example, CMA recently had to halt operations of Capital Chicken, which is currently a subject of investigation for embezzling Shs2b from various investors.  Thus Ms Ossiya must make every effort to ensure that this never happens again. 

CMA has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to efficiently prosecute offenses related to the capital markets. 

“We [CMA] aware that during such challenging times, unscrupulous individuals tend to take advantage of the unsuspecting public. Numerous schemers are eyeing the little you have saved,” Mr Kalyegira said recently in a statement.

Work and experience

No doubt Ms Ossiya appears to be a capable pair of hands given her depth of knowledge and experience.                                

She joined the Bank of Uganda board in February 2018 and has served as chief financial officer of Bujagali Energy since November 2014.

In June, she also became the first female president of the Uganda's institute of certified public accountants.

Her previous positions include being a finance director at Eskom, chief financial officer and head of finance at ATC Ghana, and financial controller at Standard Chartered Bank.  

She has worked with the British American Tobacco Uganda, National Social Security Fund, National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Shell (now Vivo), and other financial institutions.

She is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Uganda, and a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors of Uganda and the US.