Not many teenagers in Uganda own a business. But Peggy Ayesiga has done it. The 19-year old former student of Nabisunsa Girl’s School, now in her S.6 vacation, is the proud proprietor of Pretty Prints, a design enterprise that focuses on artistic branding.
Ayesiga started the business with a group of her classmates when they were still in school. They print words, names, mottos, etc, on personal and corporate items.
Ayesiga, the managing director, says she came up with the idea of Pretty Prints to promote self esteem amongst girls like her, most of whom thought a business could only be started by men.
With an initial capital of Shs 150,000, collected through sale of “shares” to friends and family at Shs1,500 each, they started the company in 2008 with the support of Junior Achievement (JA) Uganda. JA Uganda is a youth empowerment programme that helps students start income-generating activities while still in school.
Chaired by Dr Martin Aliker (also chairman of Stanbic Uganda, Monitor Publications and others) JA Uganda started operations in. It has 7 corporate partners - including Barclays Bank, Citi Foundation, Pricewaterhousecoopers, etc - that volunteer staff to mentor the students as they develop their businesses.
JA works with schools and its partners to tailor programmes to the needs of students. Primary pupils from 7 to 9 years mostly focus on community activities like games, competitions, etc. Secondary school students are considered ready to address real-life concerns like how to make money and manage it, how to create jobs, how to lead and motivate people, how to get a job and excel at it, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking in the workplace. JA has also launched the Graduate Program at Makerere University Business School to give students an opportunity to start and run real businesses.
“Our job is just to guide them and bridge the gap between school and real life,” said Josephine Kaleebi, JA’s Chief Executive Officer.
Kaleebi said the students come up with the ideas and business plans - including what products or services to offer - with the volunteers offering guidance based on their technical expertise, experiences and literature.
The entrepreneurship program runs 6-7 months in a year, which gives the students time to capitalize their business.
In 2009, Pretty Prints was voted Best JA Company in Uganda, and in 2010, it was voted most innovative and having the best sales and marketing techniques in regional competitions in Nairobi.
Pretty Prints is one of the few student companies whose team has continued to work together even out of school. During their S.6 vacation JA contracted them to make its 2011 corporate calendars, bags and T-shirts.
“We work so well as a team so there is no reason to part ways,” said Ayesiga.
But Pretty Prints is not JA Uganda’s only success story. Arinitwe Stephen, 19, a former student of Kololo S.S.S. and JA member since 2008, was recently awarded as a Young Achiever by the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), with a Shs 1 million cash prize.
After working as deputy production manager of Quapack, a JA company at Kololo, Arinitwe set up his own computer training business with 5 desktop computers and about 25 students. He also grows vegetables in his home village and has started an NGO called Helping a Friend Association of Uganda, which encourages young people to test for HIV/AIDs, donate blood and participate in community activities.
JA Uganda has attracted over 1,000 member schools in and around Kampala over the last 4 years. In October last year, 650 JA student companies showcased their products, services and businesses at the programme’s National Expo on the Garden City roof top. The event, meant for learning and sharing, brought together 350 students from Kampala and up country schools.
Students learn how to better operate their businesses, and also how to use them to support their communities. For instance the students of Mengo Secondary School used their profits to buy books for children in their community.
JA is at the forefront of a new trend of entrepreneurship programmes addressed to the high levels of youth unemployment, in Uganda, recently estimated to be up to 83percent by a recent World Bank report.
Tertiary institutions together produce over 400,000 job seekers every year, of whom only 80,000 find employment in the formal sector, public and private, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
By training them to create their own businesses before they leave school, it is considered that JA increases their chances of finding productive work.
But JA is not the only programme promoting youth entrepreneurship. Enterprise Uganda’s Business and Enterprise Start-up Tool (BEST) Programme trains new tertiary graduates in entrepreneurship skills.
Norman Matsiko, who owns Printer & General Supplies Limited on Nasser Road, finished school in 2005 and spent a year looking for a job in vain - until he attended the BEST one-week training and started his own business.
UIA’s Young Achievers Award promotes the concept of job creation, innovation and vocational skills training for young people.
Last year the Nabagereka of Buganda gave prizes to youth who had succeeded in business and other fields, and encouraged them to create jobs in their communities.
Governemnt has said it is promoting small scale industries, especially for school drop-outs and out-of-work youth. In his 2011 election manifesto, President Yoweri Museveni pledged to work with local leaders to provide embroidery, spinning and weaving equipment for young women in towns.
In the 2010- 2011 national budget, the Minister of Finance, Syda Bumba, announced a Shs 4 billion School Leaver’s Industrial Fund, managed by the Directorate of Industrial Training, to help youth start small businesses.
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