The extra-ordinarily innovative youth totaling to 78 have won themselves huge sums of money as part of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) organized seed funding program in partnership with Mastercard Foundation Uganda.
The funds awarded to 78 individuals will be highly instrumental in the growth of their businesses into viable entities, which brings the total number of businesses funded under this program to 110 since its launch in May 2021. Each business was apportioned $ 20,000.
The NSSF Hi-innovator initiative that provides young inventors a platform to present their business ideas, elaborate at length key perspectives like vision, goals and growth perspectives was concluded on Wednesday.
While handing over this money to the qualified youth at Hotel Mestil Nsambya on Tuesday, the Deputy Managing Director for NSSF Patrick Ayota said this arrangement is just one in a series of other initiatives undertaken by the workers’ agency to support innovative youth and curb unemployment.
He also acknowledged that it is satisfying to see the number of businesses supported by NSSF this year through the Hi-Innovator Program increasing from 32 to 78, an indicator that the nation has more innovative ideas and possible scalable businesses to invest in.
“This is a journey for us and like i said, our intent is that we want to create jobs, why we create jobs we create members of the fund and therefore we create our own future when we do that,” Said Mr. Ayota.
“I remember saying there is nothing for free. You either borrow and you pay interest, or you give up some shares of your business. So as NSSF, and we all know, we have an option to exercise $ 20,000 into what we call 6% equity depending how it grows,” he added.
Richard Zulu, the founding Partner and Team Lead at Outbox Uganda which has made great strides as an implementing partner for the program, attributed the success of the initiative to a concerted-tailored undertaking, involving other ecosystem players providing technical assistance and mentorship vital in unlocking affordable financing for young entrepreneurs.
The winners were handpicked from over 6,300 innovative individuals, after they had enrolled in the program’s learning platform codenamed the NSSF Hi-Innovator Business Academy, an online self-directed platform where entrepreneurs acquired foundational business knowledge in a period of 3 months.
After a week long camp, 103 entrepreneurs were then shortlisted to pitch their ideas to six investment committees that included highly experienced entrepreneurs and investors.
The businesses were from five sectors including entertainment and digital economy, agriculture, fashion and beauty, health, and light manufacturing.
Qualified businesses were vetted using a criterion that included the potential for scalability, sustainability, good governance, and community responsiveness.
Successful businesses will now undergo a due diligence process and will also rely on funding from other partner innovation hubs for a period of four months to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.
The Hi-innovator program is an undertaking by NSSF in collaboration with Mastercard Foundation Uganda, which seeks to aid indigenous small, but growing businesses to mature into viable entities.
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