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MTN Uganda has partnered with key organizations in the country’s business and innovation sector to address high attrition rates among new firms. Through their annual program, 21 Days of Y’ello Care, they aim to empower entrepreneurs and promote economic growth and digital transformation.

MTN Uganda has formed a new relationship with key players in the country’s business and innovation sector to combat the high attrition rates for new firms.

The Uganda Small Scale Industries Association, Maendeleo Foundation, Centenary Technical Services, Centenary Foundation, and Tunaweza Foundation are among the major players collaborating closely with MTN to further this cause. They seek to offer young business owners the essential skills they require as well as other forms of support to help the businesses grow and endure.

The concept is being put into action through a brand-new annual program called 21 Days of Y’ello Care, which was launched on June 1st, 2023, and is designed to give entrepreneurs the support they need to thrive in the fiercely competitive business sector.

The program, which will last 25 days, is designed around the theme: “Empowering Entrepreneurs to Unlock Growth and Job Creation for Communities” and aims to promote economic growth and digital transformation throughout the nation.

The initiative this year, according to Sylvia Mulinge, Chief Executive Officer of MTN Uganda, targets owners of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) by providing them with essential digital and financial tools, facilitating wider market access, and providing beneficial business mentoring and knowledge-sharing sessions.

“As MTN Uganda, we believe that entrepreneurship is the key to unlocking economic and social development in our communities, that is why we’re excited to launch the 2023 edition of the 21 Days of Y’ello Care programme,” said Mulinge.

“We’re supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs to unlock their potential and create opportunities for job growth and development.”

According to her, MTN Uganda recognizes the crucial role that digital skills play in the present economy and strives to give entrepreneurs these abilities so they may effectively navigate the 4th industrial revolution.

Young entrepreneurs were also given various goods from MTN to aid them in their daily tasks. To help the first recipient of this year’s 21 Days of Y’ello campaign, Disability Employment Link Project Uganda, located in Bwaise, Kampala, grow their business, these included an embroidery machine, an overlock machine, and computers among others.

This project will also assist a wide range of creative organizations. These include the Take a Step Women’s Group in Hoima, the Bumu Disability Development Association in Luwero, Every Shelter Bashebora Project, the Mulungi Confectionary and Skilling Centre in Seeta, Mukono, and the Teso Textile Light Dynamics in Soroti City. In Lubaga Division, Kampala, they are known as the Tusakimu Women’s Group. The goal of MTN’s assistance is to reduce the alarmingly high attrition rates for new enterprises in Uganda.

According to recent figures from the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development, there are around 1.1 million businesses in Uganda’s private sector, with micro and small businesses accounting for most the country’s employment opportunities.

However, the private sector of the nation has a high death rate, with 90% of private businesses, particularly SMEs, operating for only 10 years.

Some business owners, according to Ronnie Mulongo, manager of Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), lack the necessary research and planning abilities and expect to start making money right away without realizing that business growth is a slow process that calls for persistence.

About 60% of Ugandans, according to Douglas Baryevuga, a specialist in public relations and communication, enter the business world by accident with little to no planning beforehand because of the high rate of unemployment and theft of other people’s ideas, which quickly fails.