Ministry of Gender offers women collateral free loans

The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and secured sh43 billion support from the United Nations to support women employment efforts in Uganda.

The ministry’s Permanent Secretary Pius Bigirimana announced plans this week to offer women loans at reduced rates though the Women Entrepreneurship Program (WEP).

The development of WEP comes with sh43 billion support from United Nations. Participants who get loans and repay in first year, will from then on be entitled to loans at a 5% interest rate.

Bigirimana said they will  implement the collateral free loan plan to fill the unemployment gap.

“Uganda is committed to economic growth with employment opportunities hence has reaped from the youth livelihood program that targets 18-30years, where the youth have been able to engage in Agriculture at 43.6%, trade at 27% and services at 11.4%.Initiatives have been done to aggravate youth into business opportunities,” Bigirimana said.

The youth under the program involve school dropouts at 44%, secondary dropouts at 22%, single parents at 11% and youth with disabilities.

He said Uganda plans to introduce “green jobs” that are eco friendly to the youth and one million people estimated to benefit. He outlined green jobs like tree planting, recycling garbage (paper and polythene bag), wood carpentry, plumbing, vehicle mechanics and ICT sought to minimise destruction of the environment.

The ministry also plans to strengthen industrial courts to arbitrate industrial disputes, implement a national productivity centre that will review decent work and operate specialised industrial training for labour. The industrial court will comprise of two judges and 3 panelists.

From the recent concluded 105^th international labour conference May 30 to June 11 in Geneva, Switzerland, around 197 million were unemployed in the world in 2015 and projections are for a further increase in global unemployment by more than 3 million people over the next two years.