By Felix Oketcho
Kampala: The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) and the Stanbic Business Incubator (SBIL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will see 500 micro, medium and small enterprises (MSMEs) trained and supported to become compliant and sustainable businesses annually for the next five years.
The partnership and collaboration will focus on training SMEs about URSB services and enterprise development under SBIL’s Enterprise Development Program.
Speaking at the signing of the MoU, Mercy Kainobwisho who is the Registrar General-URSB said that the initiative between them and the Stanbic Business Incubator in the training of MSMEs will help to reduce business mortality while arming entrepreneurs with skills to grow their businesses.
She noted, “I appreciate the role the Stanbic Business Incubator has played in knowledge management of young entrepreneurs through the training programs provided countrywide. It is these same entrepreneurs that help our formalization drive by registering their entities.”
“With this MoU, we can now jointly develop and implement a series of initiatives on national content through the Stanbic Business Incubator. These business incubation and management programmes will support our mandate of registering intellectual property businesses in addition to getting corporate rescue services and use of the movable property to secure credit,”’ Kainobwisho added.
Meanwhile, TheSpy Uganda has learnt that upon signing, SBIL and URSB will jointly create platforms to reach at least 500 SMEs annually, incorporate a module in the Enterprise Development Program (EDP) that enlightens about URSB services including business registration, insolvency, intellectual property, expertise in capacity building and training programs, identify and facilitate businesses.
“URSB will also extend facilitative and expertise support to the Stanbic Business Incubator’s Enterprise Development Programme, identify and incorporate URSB services that support SME growth and capacity building. SBIL and URSB will also work together to adapt and co-create friendly and inspiring business environments for SMEs, “Kainobwisho explained.
SBIL was founded in 2018 as an initiative of Stanbic Bank to support and nurture SMEs to prepare for and harness business and growth opportunities. The incubator has so far trained 1,216 small and medium enterprise and 2,392 entrepreneurs.
The Business Incubator provides an enabling environment for entrepreneurs through the following programmes; business development services, training and follow-up support interventions, mentoring and coaching of entrepreneurs after formal training and provides an avenue for accessing markets and sourcing of funds.
