#ScaleTalksUg is the hashtag that was used on Facebook and Twitter during the Youth Entrepreneurship for social impact- National Uganda Scale Forum, that took place on 25th May at the Innovation village in Ntinda Complex.
The forum was implemented jointly by Aga Khan University and Aga Khan Foundation, the Civil society Initiative which supports young East African social entrepreneurs. Their objectives are Awareness, Partnerships and Social Impact, with an approach that looks at having a number of Scale national forums in the regional. These forums aim to provide better understanding of the realities of operating a business while facilitating opportunities to collaborate with key stakeholders.
The series of five forums begun in Kampala, next is to happen in Dar es Salaam, then Nairobi, Kigali and finally a regional one. I attended the Kampala one and below are my best quotes from it.
‘We cannot be calling vision 2040 when we are still using postcolonial education system. We need free thinkers.’ –
@tmsruge
TMS Ruge is the founder of a number of businesses and initiatives working on cutting edge solutions for social change in Uganda. He is the CEO and Founder of Raintree Farms, Co – Founder of Remit.Ug and Hive CoLab the first technology incubator.
‘One of the problems we have in this country is the fact that we don’t have local capital.’
@tmsruge
I nodded my head on this like I was suffering from Nodding Disease. The capital we have is man power(young people) that needs money capital that not many organisations or people want to invest in. Because of this me and my friend Ian ( last week’s guest blog) are talking and brainstorming best ways to create a fund that young people can benefit from and grow their businesses with less Bs.
Our life expectancy is 58. Nearly half of our governance is above that. Unable to relate to young entrepreneurs.’
‘The people in power need to be stewards & build the entrepreneurial economy.These stewards are asleep at the wheel.’
@tmsruge
The things that keep me awake at night, trying to figure out how the old guard can’t really see that we need them to retire for this country to progress.
‘Steve Jobs & co weren’t trying to survive.They had enabling environments inspiring them 2 build.That is difference.’
@tmsruge
TMS was deep!
‘You don’t need to first wait to get that big investor. Use the available resources.’ Rusia Orikiriza
Rusia is a the Founder and Managing Director Oribags Innovations Ltd. Oribags is a leading manufacturer of environmentally friendly products.
‘Entrepreneurs need risk capital. Someone to belive in you even if they don’t completely understand you.’
@solomonking
Solomon is the Founder Fundi Bots a non profit that promotes better and practical science education in African schools by teaching student how to build robots.
‘I’m a huge fan of failing ‘upwards’.Keep trying and getting better.’
@solomonking
Solomon shared about failure and getting up because with technology you are either ahead, within or chasing after it and all these are have failure written all over them. Being at the cutting edge of technology Solomon when he created Node Six and Elemental Edge he was at most 3 to 5 years ahead of the Uganda industry in technology.
‘You can have an idea in the pocket but if you don’t get it started you will get nowhere.’ -Ricky Rapa Thompson
Ricky is a natural born entrepreneur and at the present, he presents SafeBoda as the Director of Operations.
‘Entrepreneurship needs to come from upbringing’ Madina Guloba
Madina is an Economist with a PHD and Masters of Arts in Economics from University of Dar es Salaam Tanzania and is a member of the international Association of Feminist Economist, member of the National African Statistical Society.
‘The problem with entrepreneurship is not money. It is that people don’t know what to do. The mindset is still backward.
‘What needs to be done within our education system to generate entrepreneurs.
The problem with the Ugandan youth is that they are bayaaye. They want to tap into the Youth Funds for in-genuine reasons.’
‘Entrepreneurship in America is like walking on the moon,in Africa it is like walking with a bag full of stones on your back.’
So, what is awesome about Uganda?
All I see is a bunch of quotes saying, “the problem is…”
And if you study them, they are actually saying, “it is not my fault. the reason I am not a success is….”
I wanted to hear more, “come to Jesus” moments like, “this is an opportunity we have you should take advantage of” or, “you all should participate in ACIA to get your ideas validated…”
But noooooooooooo, all there was to hear was , “this is what is wrong with Uganda”, and, “this is why you will not succeed in Uganda”.
Such speech is popular with opposition propagandists and people seeking cheap popularity.
My former MD used to say, “James, bring me solutions not problems”.
Sister, I say to you, please blog solutions and not navel gazing whiny problems.
Very true but the solution has to come from highlighting a problem.
I have highlighted the problem and in there stated a solution, promised to expand on it. Because from what I had at the talk, I realized we are not going to be helped by the system created by the Old Guard, it was created for them and not us, it can’t help us move forward; we have to build, make our own system and not be selfish at them or with them.
I will share again the solutions but for the meantime, let others look into these problems and think of solutions. It would be great to have one person say, ‘I read this on pk’s blog as a problem and I fix it’
she is telling us what really is true among Ugandans, it is not lack of opportunity but the lack of the right mindset to tap opportunites