New app to boost market women

Busy customers will no longer have to drive to markets for foodstuffs

Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | A new app to be launched next month will boost the fortunes of market women who operate in areas like Nakawa, Kalerwe, Ntinda and Nakasero.

The app is meant to eliminate the role of middlemen who have emerged in these markets by doing shopping for buyers and negotiating on their behalf and in the long run eating into the profits of the hardworking market women.

Institute for Social Transformation, a development organization, has teamed up with UN Women, the UN agency for women empowerment, to create an app that will connect customers directly to the market women.

From the comfort of their location, a customer will make the request for the kind of produce he wants form the market and the delivery will be made between the market and the customer.

“There will be a communal phone in the market where one of these women will be able to pick up as many orders as possible,” says Rita Akankwatsa, executive director of Institute for Social Transformation.

Some of the women already have smartphones, she says. Akankwatsa says there will be a partnership with the existing modes of transport.

Institute for Social Transformation studied the activities of market women and since 2015 has trained them in the areas of leadership, financial literacy and other relevant business skills.

Markets like Nakasero, Ntinda, Kalerwe will be the first to be mapped since they are in the central region. Women in districts like Gulu, Arua will be brought on board.

Institute for Social Transformation was inspired when it realized market women in West Africa were participating in policy processes and business development, meaning that their East African counterparts had something to learn.

Secondly, the Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Project (MATIP) was leaving behind market women because the stalls were mostly owned by elites. “We were concerned that women who are the majority in these markets were not involved in leadership,” says Akankwatsa.

The app set to be launched in mid-December will work pretty much like ride hailing apps Safeboda and Uber.