Over eighty participants from Northern Uganda participated in the MTN Business training for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and were awarded certificates. Participants from the districts of Gulu, Apac, Lira, Kitgum, Masindi and surrounding areas received their awards on Wednesday 20th November 2013 after completing the two day Business Management training.
The program aims at empowering the SME segment with the knowledge and skills required to run successful businesses. For the last two years, the program which is run in partnership with KPMG Uganda delivers the technical expertise covering the following topics: Internal Controls, Working Capital Management, Business Planning, Interpretation of Bank Statements and Basic Knowledge of Taxation.
Over the years there has been a phenomenal growth particularly in the SME market and this has formed the backbone of Uganda’s economic growth. It is with this in mind that MTN has chosen to consistently support this section of the economy.
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The training that was carried out by a specialized team of consultants from MTN’s partners KPMG was well suited for the participants. It covered a number of topics ranging from creating and preserving wealth, book keeping and personnel management through business planning and strategy development.
Representing MTN Uganda, the Senior Manager Enterprise, Hazel Twesigye said starting this year, the training which initially handled 100 SMEs a year, has now been regionalized, with each region to be represented by 150 businesses. The Northern region has been first beneficiary to be followed by Western Region in Mbarara, on 3rd December while East and Central region will be covered in 2014.
Talking about the selection criteria of the participants, Twesigye said participants were asked to apply for the training, and thereafter vetted done by the consulting team as to whether they are indeed an SME and stand to gain from the training.
She said MTN has launched a number of products and services aimed at making the lives of the business community as well as SMEs a whole lot better. She pointed out MTN Cloud services as one such package that is increasingly becoming popular with business community as a one-stop shop for all their business related data/software solutions.
At the end of the training, participants were hosted to an evening cocktail, officiated by the Mayor of Gulu Municipality, Mr. George Labeja as the Chief Guest. He hailed MTN for bringing development oriented initiative to the Northern region.
Mr. George Labeja said “SMEs should utilize the skills they have acquired at the MTN training to improved their businesses. This is a great opportunity to learn best practice as concerns Business Management”.
He invited other Corporates to emulate the development spirit of MTN Uganda and join hands with the leadership of the Northern region for development.
The dinner was also attended by representatives from MTN Business, the MTN dealer representatives for the Northern region, NGOs and Corporates from Gulu. To crown off the evening, one of Uganda’s top entertainers Cindy, provided entertainment.
The evening was crowned with a draw in which three of the attendees won WiFi routers.
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