By Our Reporter
Orient Bank has partnered with Makerere University Business School (MUBS) to train and facilitate over thirty small scale business owners through the Orient Business Academy to grow their businesses to the next level.
Speaking at the launch of the academy in its 3rd year of running at MUBS, Orient Bank Limited’s Managing Director, Julius Kakeeto urged all small scale business owners to take part in financial literacy programmes to equip themselves with the relevant skills to enable them survive in the country’s competitive business environment and also position themselves for growth.
“A business needs a strong backbone in order to survive and this academy will definitely enhance what the participants already possess in form of talents and skills with the right direction from our carefully selected facilitators.” Kakeeto said.
The Orient Business Academy will run on an intensive 10 weeks training programme that climaxes into a graduation ceremony at which 5 top performers will be awarded with up to Shs20 million to finance their businesses as selected by a panel of judges comprised of the Academy’s facilitators and bank analysts.
Speaking at the same event, Makerere University Business School’s Principal, Prof. Waswa Balunywa (PhD) noted that programmes such as the Orient Business Academy hold the key to eradicating unemployment in the country and urged Orient Bank and other corporate institutions to open the trainings to other parts of the country for purposes of inclusion.
The academy focuses on training small scale business owners in the areas of; The Entrepreneurial Mindset, Bookkeeping, Competitive Market Analysis, Marketing, Human Resource Management, Operations Planning and Financial Planning.
Any small business that has been in operation for between 1 and 3 years (12 to 36 months) and has an annual turnover of less than UGX 120 million is eligible to participate in the Orient Business Academy which has over the past 2 years trained over 100 small scale business owners and rewarded 10 of them with financial support of up to shs120 million.