Inadequate capital and the high cost of money have dominated the discussion on the growth of domestic innovation as innovative entrepreneurs meet for the National Science Week. Hundreds of both small and large, as well as startups and established ones, took advantage of the week that runs up to Thursday, to display their products for both marketing and financing purposes.
Monica Musenero, the Minister for Science, Technology, and Innovation, who just oversaw the launch of Uganda’s first satellite into space, vowed that they want any planned scientific development to be completed ahead of schedule henceforth.
This, according to her, is the reason the government is intervening in the search for financiers for the private sector innovators where its own resources are inadequate.
The National Science Week 2022 under the theme “Uganda 2040; The Future We Want Through Science, Technology and Innovation (STI),” is aimed at partly implementing the government’s development model that puts the focus on specific areas including ICT, agro-processing, industry and oil and gas.
Startup projects are some of those that find it hard to access financing, while the funds that are readily available are usually too expensive for them. For this reason, the government and private agencies are pushing for increased visibility of local enterprises to venture capital and equity funds either in Uganda or outside.
The exhibition is aimed to provide a platform to showcase innovations and technologies across all sectors “that are steering the country toward achieving national development goals and fighting poverty.” Several young enterprises have appealed to investors in and outside Uganda to invest in their projects and help them expand.
Steven Kavuma, the Founder of Revmake says they need money to expand their e-waste recycling project, where they are producing power banks and other electricity backup equipment.
His counterpart, Jakob Hornback, the cofounder of Bodawerk, says that on their part, they were driven by the presence of many substandard electronic products on the market, as well as the disconnect between the producers overseas and the local consumers.
They are looking for money to develop their new home at Namanve Industrial Park from the small room at Ntinda where they currently operate from. So far they are concentrating on recycling batteries, according to Hornbach.
On her part, Dora Egunyu, the chief executive at The Shea House, says they need to expand their business into other products, on top of the body lotion that they are currently producing.
Egunyu says they have been exporting Shea products for the last three years but that they are constrained by production capacity because they cannot meet especially the export market.
Experts partly blamed the failure of the entrepreneurs to access financing on the lack of marketing skills. Esther Ndeti, the Investment Principal at Unconditional Capital Kenya, said Uganda had done well in attracting capital for startups and is closely following Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt.
However, she says, while there are good ideas, the innovators fail to make them marketable to investors and financiers.
Startups and other SMEs in Uganda have persistently complained that the local financial sector has not been interested in lending to them, and they have to rely on their own savings or raise money from friends and family.
Uganda Development Bank, on its part, says that recently, the bank is introducing measures targeted at helping SMEs and startups. Ivan Kisembo, the Head of Project Preparation at UDB says that his department was created specifically for this purpose to make the targeted enterprises ready to access funding.
Speaking at the launch of the week, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja pledged government preparedness to continue supporting programs that help it achieve its long-term vision.
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