Rays of opportunity have touched Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Eastern Uganda where MTN Uganda conducted a regional Business Skills Training facilitated by a team of Consultants from Summit Consulting Ltd, a Business Consultancy Firm contracted by MTN Business.
The training program which took place at Mbale Resort Hotel on 5th June 2014 attracted Small business owners in Eastern Uganda from Jinja, Mbale, Tororo, Soroti, Busia and other surrounding districts. This follows similar sessions already conducted with SMEs in the Northern and Western regions where over 150 participants were taken through the detail of modern business trends courtesy of MTN Uganda.
Over 100 small business owners in Eastern Uganda were vetted after assessing their applications for the training. This included visiting their businesses for verification purposes.
The MTN Business SME Training program aims at empowering the SME segment with the knowledge and skills required to run successful businesses. For the last three years, the program has delivered business skills training, centered around the following topics: Internal Controls, Working Capital Management, Business Planning, Interpretation of Bank Statements, Basic Knowledge of Taxation, and Value Creation and Preservation.
Over the years there has been a phenomenal growth in the SME segment, making it a cornerstone of Uganda’s economic growth. It is with this in mind that MTN Business has chosen to continuously support SMEs. The Central region with its large business scale is next in line to benefit from the training.
Hon. Nandala Mafabi, MP for Budadiri County, Sironko District officiated as Guest of Honour at the evening cocktail at the close of the training and appreciated MTN Business for giving back to the people and setting up such programs which are very vital in a growing economy like Uganda. Conveying his remarks, he said “we appreciate the knowledge that has been passed on during this training and we thank MTN for such initiatives because I believe such useful information will help Uganda’s economy through these trained business owners”.
Explaining the selection criteria of the participants, MTN Business General Manager- Mr Reginald Kafeero said the participants were asked to apply for the training, and thereafter vetted through the consulting team as to whether they are indeed a registered and progressively growing business and stand to gain from the training.
Kafeero said MTN Business has initiated a number of products and services aimed at introducing SMEs to new ways of doing business. He cited MTN Cloud services as one such product that is increasingly becoming popular with business community as a one-stop shop for all their business related data/software solutions.
The participants interacted with officials from MTN, Government, local NGOs as well as high value customers, during the evening cocktail.
