Zimba Women, earlier last week officially launched their first annual Zimba Women Technology in Business Summit 2016 dubbed under the theme “Breaking Business Barriers” at a press conference at Sheraton Kampala Hotel. The launch gathered the sponsors of the summit including; the American Embassy; represented by the Cultural Affairs Officer, Niles Cole and Zimba Women partners, NSF III Project ITC; represented by Richard Okuti.
The two day Zimba Women Summit 2016 was scheduled to run from 28th to 29th September, 2016 at Sheraton Kampala Hotel.
Zimba Women Technology in Business Summit aimed to help female entrepreneurs to use technology to grow their businesses and also encourage young girls to pursue science and technology courses and subjects.
DAY ONE of the summit:
At day one of the event , the first panelists moderated by Elizabeth Kasujja; Communications Manager at Zimba Women with discussants Benedicta Nanyonga; Founder at Kinawataka Women’s Group, Tatiana Lanega; GirlBoss in Africa, Barbara K. Itungo; Caring Hearts Uganda and Florence Katono who discussed on how women should mentor girls.
Later on after the discussion, the Zimba Women association offically the Zimba Mentorship Program, to guide young women entrepreneurs on how to start and run their businesses.
Representatives from Facebook Africa, Akuya Gyeke; Public Policy Manager and Felix Meissner; Accounts Manager for SMEs discussed on leveraging Facebook for business
Gyeke, pointed out that 39 million people in the Sub-Saharan Africa use Facebook daily, and of which 36 million of them use their mobile phones. She emphasized women to use Facebook as a social platform to promote their business since the San-Francisco social messaging Inc. is ranked as one of the popular channels for advertising.
Whereas her partner in business, Felix pointed out four (4) things women should always think about while using the Facebook to advertise their businesses. He notes that women, should look at; the Objective as to why they’re promoting their business, who their targeted Audience is, what type of Ad Format they’re to use and the Measure of their Success.
Second panelists moderated by Richard Okuti; Project Cordinator of the NTF II of the UN ITC Project with discussants including; CEO at Zimba Women; Sherifah Tumusiime, Marketing Manager at Smile Telecom; Sylvester Lalum, Head of Public Policy Manager at Facebook Africa; Akua Gyeke, Accounts Manager for SMEs at Facebook Africa; Felix Meissner, Board Member of ICTAU; Evelyn Namara and Program Manager, Gender and ICT Policy Advocacy at WOUGNET; Goretti Amuriat
The final panelist that brought storm in the house moderated by Co-Founder at Hive Colab & Remit Uganda; Teddy Ruge who discussed about Government Incentives for Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) with his discussants including; David Turahi; from the Ministry of ICT, Stella Alibateesa; Director for Regulation for Legal Services at NITA-Uganda, Irene S. Kaggawa; Director for Engineering and Communications at UCC and Douglas Onyango; ITC Consultant Developing the ICT Country Profile for Export.
DAY TWO of the summit:
Day two of the Zimba Women Summit kicked off with a recap of day one’s scheduled and later on processed to discussing on how women should grow their business through public procurement. The discussion was led by United Nations – International Trade Centre representative; Patricia Russ.
Patricia Russ later on moderated the first panelists of the second day including discussants; Dickson Kateshumbwa; Commissioner Customs Department at URA, Basil Ajer; Uganda Investment Authority, Andrew K. Luzze; East Africa Trade and Investment Hub, Ezra Rubanda; Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Registrar Gen. Bemanya Twebaze; Uganda Registration Services Bureau, sharing on harnessing trade opportunities.
During the discussion, panelists were in position to answer questions such as; What would happen if one owned a business in Uganda and yet S/he wasn’t a Ugandan?, What are the terms and conditions when registering a business?, How are goods and services taxed?, How can one carry out trade between two different countries?, to name a few.
Fabian Kasi; Managing Director at Centenary Bank moderated discussants; Birungi Bagenda from Mango Fund, Diana Okot – Chano at Uganda Development Bank, Fiona Niwamanya, and Peter Muzoora; Project Manager at Smart Business Intelligence (SBI), on how to access finances for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
And the final panelists moderated by Stella Nassali; Finance and Project Manager at Zimba Women alongside her discussants; Hawa Kagoya; Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited, Martha Kagimba; Social Media Entrepreneur, Brenda Busingye; Ambishion Designers, Siki Kigongo; Amagara Skin Care and Diana M. Miiro; Backyard Gardeners, discussing on how women entrepreneurs can maximize business opportunities.
During the event, there was a Seedstars world pitching sessions led by Selam Kebede; Senior Associate for Seedstars Africa, where women entrepreneurs were each given 5 minutes to pitch their ideas and were also given a chance to compete in Uganda’s best seedstar stage startup to represent the country (Uganda) at the Seedstars Summit.
Finally, the Zimba Women association gave their closing remarks about the summit, afterwards, officially closing the Zimba Women Technology in Business Summit 2016.
