Hi-Innovator Women Accelerator-NSSF Uganda

Hi-Innovator is set out to support small and growing businesses within the Ugandan ecosystem over a 5-year period. The program looks to impact 132,000 youths attached to 20 hubs/ESOs across the country, with a direct intention of touching the lives of 92,400 women employers and employees in the five regions of Uganda. To achieve this target, we are embarking on a women accelerator to give women entrepreneurs across all sectors an opportunity to improve their business skills, grow their businesses to be resilient while also making them more competitive and better placed to receive financial services. For this call, our target is to fund 100 women-owned or women-led businesses with each getting USD 20,000 grant funding, technical assistance, market linkages and support to raise follow-on financing.

The program will be open to women running businesses with the potential to grow that have been in operation for at least 2 years.

Benefits

During the program, businesses will get:

1. USD 20,000 grant funding and in turn provide a 6% equity stake ownership to NSSF.
2. Tailored technical support will be available to all businesses.
3. Mentorship and peer-peer learning opportunities.
4. Investor networking sessions, forward & backward market linkages.
5. Unlimited access to the learning content in the Business Academy.

 Selection Criteria

1. Fully registered with Uganda Registry Services Bureau (URSB), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), and National Social Security Fund (NSSF). First time registration before application is acceptable.
2. The business should have been legally and actively operational in Uganda for at least two years.
3. The business employs at least 2 full time staff with at least 50% of the staff below 35 years of age.
4. The business should be 50% female owned and or have 70% women in top management/leadership positions.
5. The business should have made a minimum annual revenue of Uganda Shillings 10 million in the past year and has not raised more than Uganda Shilling 1 Billion in grants, convertible grants, debt or private equity.
6. Has evidence of 100% completion of the Hi-Innovator business academy course.
7. Businesses in all sectors are eligible to participate.
8. Willing to provide a 6% equity stake ownership to NSSF.