The Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) is Uganda’s Apex private sector body, uniting over 340 business associations and corporate entities to drive economic growth through advocacy, capacity building and strategic partnerships. As the government’s trusted implementation partner for multiple private sector-oriented projects, PSFU bridges policy and practice transforming Uganda’s business ecosystem through flagship initiatives like the GROW (Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises) project and as a co-anchor of the WE Finance Code Uganda.
This month, we interview Chief Executive Officer Stephen Asiimwe about how PSFU is championing Women’s Markets in Uganda including through its focus on the under-35 cohort and women entrepreneurs in the “missing middle”, supporting the transition from digital wallets to quality financing, and more.
Alliance: For the benefit of our global audience, can you please briefly describe Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU)’s mission and role in the Ugandan ecosystem?
Stephen Asiimwe (SA): PSFU is the bridge between Uganda’s ambitious entrepreneurs and the enabling environment needed to thrive. Since 1995, PSFU has been the private sector’s unified voice advocating for improved regulations, better infrastructure and inclusive economic policies. However, PSFU is not just a lobbyist but an implementer as well. When government wants to disburse specific services__ for example, agricultural credit or digital financial services roll-outs––they engage with us. PSFU translates policy into practice ensuring that whether you are a woman dealing in produce in Karamoja or a tech startup in Kampala, the system works for you.
Our mission is: To catalyze business growth and competitiveness for sustainable wealth creation and shared values.
Alliance: Can you please share more about how PSFU promotes women’s economic empowerment in Uganda?
SA: Uganda has one of Africa’s highest rates of women’s entrepreneurship. Approximately 44 percent of all businesses are women-led, yet only 25 percent of women-led businesses access formal credit. The gender gap in access to accounts has narrowed to just 2-3 percent, thanks largely to mobile money, but the quality of inclusion remains stark. Women are stuck in micro-enterprises, averaging loans of just $300 –$2,000 at interest rates of 22 percent per annum, while their businesses have potential for so much more.
At PSFU, we are part of the organizations changing the narrative through the GROW (Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises) Project, a $217 million World Bank initiative implemented alongside the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development. We are not just facilitating the opening of accounts or enabling access to concessional credit; we are growing businesses. We provide skills training, mentorship and, crucially, connections to marketplaces and affordable finance. Through the GROW project, we have reached thousands of women, including refugees, refugee-host communities, and those with disabilities, helping them transition from micro to small-to-medium enterprises. When a woman scales her business, she doesn’t just lift herself but rather employs her community and re-invests in her children’s education. We’re chasing that multiplier effect.
Alliance: Which customer segments among women are you prioritizing, and what tailored value propositions (financial and non-financial services) are you encouraging financial services providers and enterprise support organizations to offer them?
SA: We’re deliberately targeting the “missing middle” women who have survived the startup phase but are stuck, unable to access the capital or skills to grow. Specifically, we’re prioritizing refugee women entrepreneurs, women in underserved regions like Northern Uganda, Karamoja and Busoga, women with disabilities and those in high-potential sectors like agribusiness, manufacturing, construction and climate-smart technologies.
We are encouraging financial service providers to offer services beyond generic micro-loans and include:
- Tiered loan products that match business lifecycle stages, with longer tenors and grace periods for women transitioning to larger operations.
- Alternative credit assessment models that recognize non-traditional sources of business and financial information such as mobile money transactions and utility payments.
- Alternative collateral models that recognize women assets, like group guarantees or movable asset-based lending.
On the non-financial side, we are advocating for childcare facilities at production hubs to promote scalability, digital literacy bootcamps, and market linkages to regional and international trade channels.
Alliance: Youth and young entrepreneurs (defined as up to age 35) represent a vital part of Uganda’s economy. Does PSFU have a strategy to support them start and grow businesses, especially young women?
SA: Absolutely! As the second youngest country in the world, our future depends on it. Through the PSFU NextGen series, we host annual mentorship summits connecting young entrepreneurs with CEOs and corporate leaders from large companies like MTN Uganda, DFCU, and Stanbic Bank etc., many of whom are PSFU members. Beyond mentorship summits, we have integrated youth-specific tracks (and especially those for young women) into the projects we implement on behalf of government and development partners, recognizing that young women face unique barriers like: limited collateral, lower financial literacy and societal pressure to prioritize domestic roles over business ambition.
We’re partnering with innovation hubs and vocational institutes to provide apprenticeships where young women learn from master craftspeople. The goal is to engage young women early, before the gender gap widens, and equip them with the skills, networks and capital to build generational wealth.
Alliance: Digital financial services played a major role in bringing so many women into formal financial services in Uganda. What is PSFU’s strategy for supporting DFS’s impact on women’s financial inclusion?
Mobile money was our Trojan horse as 53 percent of Ugandan women now have mobile money accounts. However, it brings challenges, including that many are still using these accounts for basic transfers and cash-out, not for savings, credit, or investment. We’re working to deepen usage.
Our strategy has three pillars: First, we’re advocating for interoperability and reduced transaction costs because high fees erode women’s small margins. Second, we’re lobbying for smartphone financing and digital literacy programs. Only 13 percent of women own smartphones versus 18 percent of men, and without smartphones, women can’t access advanced DFS like digital lending or e-commerce platforms. Third, and most critically, we’re working with fintech and banks to design women-centric digital products like digital VSLAs (village savings groups), agricultural insurance triggered by satellite weather data, or supply chain financing for women aggregators–– products that address real pain points.
Digital Financial Services transformed access and thus the need to transform utility. When a woman in rural Uganda can uses her phone to secure a loan, buy seeds, sell her harvest, and insure against drought without stepping into a bank branch, that’s when we’ve won.
Alliance: In November 2025, Uganda launched the WE Finance Code. What role is PSFU playing in implementing the WE Finance Code in Uganda and supporting Code signatories honor their commitments?
SA: November 19th, 2025, was a watershed moment. As co-anchors of the WE Finance Code alongside Bank of Uganda, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development and with the support of the World Bank, PSFU helped launch this global framework in Uganda to tackle the data desert surrounding women SME finance. The Code is elegant in its simplicity: leadership commitments, sex-disaggregated data reporting and concrete actions to expand financing for women-led enterprises.
Our role is the “glue” that holds the ecosystem accountable. We are mobilizing financial service providers to sign on to banks, MFIs, SACCOs, fintech and then help them build internal systems to track and report gender-disaggregated data. But we don’t stop at compliance; we facilitate peer learning where signatories share what’s working, voice of the demand side, ensure that as institutions collect data, they use the Code to design better products. The Code isn’t just about numbers; it’s about changing the culture of lending. When a bank CEO acknowledges that women have lower default rates, higher products per customer when served well, but some barriers that make it harder to access loans, s/he will invest in the relationship, not retreat from the market.
Alliance: Why did you decide to join the Financial Alliance for Women, and what are you most looking forward to learning from or sharing with the network?
SA: PSFU joined the Financial Alliance for Women because Uganda’s challenges are not unique, and neither are the solutions. Yes, we’ve made strides with mobile money and interventions like the GROW Project, but we need to accelerate. We are hungry for the data and benchmarks that the Alliance provides like business case benchmarks in Jordan, Kenya’s structured blended finance for Agri-SMEs and the regulatory tweaks that have given more women access in Bangladesh.
But we are also here to contribute. Uganda is a living laboratory for women economic empowerment at the bottom of the pyramid. We have over 1.3 million women-led enterprises, a government committed to gender-inclusive growth and now the WE Finance Code. We want to share our lessons, failures and wins with women across the Alliance. When Ugandan women scale, they don’t only change their households but rather change the continent’s economic trajectory. hat’s a story worth telling, and a journey worth sharing.
