Record breaking year for entrepreneurship programme in Uganda!

Ugandan entrepreneurs have smashed it with a record 33 businesses started or about to start trading in 2025, beating the previous annual record of 32 enterprises in India.

The 33 mostly street-based ventures are diverse - from selling groceries and second-hand shoes to tailoring and mat making. All but one has been started by a female entrepreneur, many of whom are illiterate and represent some of the most disadvantaged people on the planet.

A total of 23 businesses were already trading going into December. All have triggered significant increases in household income. None have failed. Ten are being set up at the time of writing and are expected to be fully operational before the end of 2025.  

Of the 23 businesses from earlier in the year where data is available, 20 of them (87%) increased household income by 150% or more, while five of the ventures boosted household income by a staggering 400%.
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One of the top performers is Harriet, a 40-year-old single mother of two. Her husband left her after their second child. She’d been clawing money together from odd jobs, bringing in just UGX 4,000 or 84p a day. 

Harriet and her grocery store

However, equipped with start-up funding, Harriet has set up a grocery store, which is already pulling in UGX 20,000 daily. “I can now take care of my children and even save a little,” she says.

In Uganda, the sad reality is that children are sometimes abandoned by destitute single mothers who feel they have no other choice. To combat this, these micro-enterprises can deliver regular income and create a stable environment where mothers feel better equipped to look after their children.   

Sherina and her mini restaurant

Single mother Sherina is also doing exceptionally well. She was referred by the local authorities after being evicted by her landlady. Sherina’s husband disappeared and left her with nothing to care for their two children. She had some restaurant experience so was helped to set up a mini restaurant. Sherina has gone from surviving on UGX 3,000 a day (63p) to 15,000. “I’m doing ok,” she says modestly. “I can now pay rent and school fees.”
          
Of the remaining three ventures already trading, household income has been boosted by between 50% and 120%.

Joan is off to a positive start and managed to lift household income by 120%. With a sick husband due to HIV/AIDS and three children, the 37-year-old had been forced into agricultural labouring to survive. 

Joan, whose business is selling charcoal

Now, with funding assistance, she’s been able to set up a business selling charcoal, widely used for cooking in Uganda. “I am now able to purchase daily needs for my children and even get treatment supplements for my sick husband,” she says.

Jonathan Hill, founder of The Road to Parity, says: “Our entrepreneurs are extraordinary people. Despite enduring crippling deprivation and the low self-esteem that often comes with it, they’ve seized the opportunity to start a little business and become financially self-sufficient. And my goodness, they’ve run with it! For us, it’s hugely satisfying to see despair replaced by hope using the power of entrepreneurship. Well done to all our new entrepreneurs!”      

Lilian Nayiga, Co-founder of CACDI, says: “Our top priority is to care for children. But the partnership with The Road to Parity also enables us to assist parents, mostly women, by creating these businesses. If they can generate a stable income, children can be properly looked after and are less likely to be abandoned in the first place.” This programme is a game changer.”

Project Twekembe, as it’s called, broadly translates to ‘let’s fight against poverty.’ It’s a community-inspired title which came from feedback during initial outreach sessions. The project has now spread to nine villages in Luweero district, north of the capital, Kampala.

For Lydia, it’s provided a life-changing opportunity to have a banana-selling business. The 39-year-old mother was deserted by her husband and left to look after three children with no job. She went knocking on doors trying to find clothes to wash and dishes to clean to make some money.
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Lydia with her new banana business

A local council eventually referred her to Project Twekembe. “I have never done any business before and I really can’t suggest any business for myself, I need your help,” Lydia pleaded. She was talked through several simple business options and settled on bananas, which she sells along with potatoes and cassava, a root vegetable, rich in carbohydrates and vitamin C. Lydia is still getting to grips with the finances but has already gone from a pre-business daily income of UGX 3,000 (62p) to 10,000, a rise of 233%.

The Road to Parity brought the entrepreneurship initiative to Uganda last year after launching in India. Project Unnati, as it was called there, (meaning progress) led to 90 businesses being established in the slums of Delhi.   

2025 was the first full year of the partnership between The Road to Parity and CACDI (Canaan Children's Development Initiative), a Ugandan NGO which runs a shelter for vulnerable youngsters, many of whom are abandoned by mothers in extreme poverty, or are widows, victims of domestic abuse, or suffering from HIV.

Jonathan added: “I want to personally thank Lilian and the rest of the Uganda team for doing an amazing job activating these businesses on the ground. And to break the record for new businesses in the first full year of operation is an impressive achievement. I look forward to many more businesses being created and more people being empowered to look after their families.”

The 2025 businesses are mostly selling groceries, including vegetables, fresh fruit, snacks, chapattis, fish and chickens. There are tailoring and shoe repairing businesses, a beauty salon and stalls selling clothes, shoes and sandals.

Grace, a widow caring for a sick son, has a grocery stall, increasing household income by 233%

Single mum, Rehema, opted for a banana business to support 3 children, boosting household income by 150%

It costs between £60-65 to set up each venture, some of which are supporting households of up to 11 people.

The model is simple. People in extreme poverty are given a one-off micro grant and helped to buy the supplies and equipment they need to start a small enterprise. Beneficiaries are given some basic training in running a business, including some marketing techniques. There is no coming back for further funding so the businesses must work.

Many of the beneficiaries are illiterate and have never run a business before but tend to choose ideas where they have some experience. The simplicity of the businesses – fast selling daily items – means the ventures become profitable almost immediately.

​A trial involving 13 businesses took place in Uganda in 2024, which provided the basis for a full programme rollout this year. Including the trial, the total number of enterprises in Uganda now stands at 46, which are supporting 272 household members.