The National Social Security Fund and the Mastercard Foundation have a shared vision of creating and sustaining 132,000 dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for young people, 70% of these for young women in the next 3 years. In the 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE), Uganda was ranked as the second country globally with the most women business owners (38.4%), this being a percentage of the total business owners in the country. This serves as a clear indication that it is crucial to focus on supporting women-owned enterprises as a means of accelerating Uganda’s economic growth and vitality, and recognising the potential women have towards national wealth creation and women advancement.

 

The 2019 World Bank research states that women-owned microenterprises in Uganda generate 30% lower profits than their male counterparts. This could be attributed to gender specific constraints that include childcare responsibilities and time constraints, lack of information and networks, lack of access to finance, and social norms (e.g., mobility constraints, attitudes towards women in business). These constraints greatly contribute to the low participation of women in business accelerator programs and limit their chances of scaling their businesses.

 

Based on the unique needs, contexts, sectors and size of the women-owned enterprises, the Hi-Innovator Program launched the Women Accelerator, tailoring it to provide integrated personal agency training complementary to business technical skills trainings specifically for women entrepreneurs. This is focused on developing a growth-oriented mindset, empowering women with the skills needed to surmount social and psychological obstacles, improve their personal agency and leadership which we expect to positively impact their confidence, motivation, and resilience.

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Calling all Women Entrepreneurs to join the NSSF Hi-Innovator Women Accelerator Window III for a chance to receive UGX. 75,000,000 to grow their businesses

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Women Accelerator Window III

The Hi-Innovator Women Accelerator has been designed for women-owned and women-led businesses operating in all sectors in Uganda. The program will be open to women running micro, small to medium sized enterprises that have been in operation for at least 2 years. The businesses could be family-run, side-hustle businesses established to supplement/diversify the entrepreneurs’ income, retail businesses or high-growth businesses employing upto 50 staff. 

During the program, businesses will get:

USD 20,000 grant funding and in turn provide a 6% equity stake ownership to NSSF.

Tailored technical support 

Mentorship and peer-peer learning opportunities

Unlimited access to the entrepreneurship learning content on the Hi-Innovator Business Academy and alongside learning from a community of like minded entrepreneurs. 

Networking opportunities e.g investor networking sessions, forward & backward market linkages

Following a screening of over 6,300 applications over a one-month period, 103 entrepreneurs were shortlisted to pitch their ideas to a 21-person Investment Committee that consisted of seasoned Ugandan entrepreneurs and investors. 

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Over 2 days of pitching, the Investment Committee identified 78 Ugandan businesses that were able to demonstrate the potential to effectively utilise the award to sustainably grow and, in turn, deliver positive impact to society through the Sustainable Development Goals and unlocking new opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work to youth directly or indirectly.

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Speaking at the awarding ceremony on 3rd October, 2022, Patrick Ayota, the Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund said, “It is gratifying to see that the number of businesses we are supporting this year through the Hi-Innovator Program has increased from 28 to 78. This is an indication that we have more innovative ideas and possible scalable businesses to support in growth”.

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Representing the Mastercard Foundation, Arnold Byarugaba affirmed the positive impact the Program was making, “It is not enough to start a business. We have to ask ourselves what is required of me today, what can I do? That’s why Hi-Innovator is here, that’s why the Mastercard Foundation partnered with the National Social Security Fund.”

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This brings the total of businesses funded to 110 since the Hi-Innovator Programme was launched in May 2021, totaling UGX 10.5 billion in seed funding.

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Some of the winners of the funding include Apa Original Kisubi Tea Limited, Arua City Food House, who majorly processes maize and cassava flour into highly nutritious and affordable maize and cassava flour, Chomsky U Ltd, which seeks to offer affordable orchard management services that are easily accessible to orchard farmers, Redvers E-Mobility, an e-mobility Conversion Kit and battery for motorcycles, and Bugiri Female Youth Tailoring and Designing Association, which majors in capacity building through training youth women in tailoring and design and production of more tailored cloth to the market.

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This cohort focused on Agriculture, Fashion and Beauty, Light Manufacturing, Digital Economy, and Health sectors

Cohort 2 Accelerator

Following a screening of over 136 applications over a one-month period week-long boot camp, 46 businesses were then shortlisted to pitch their ideas to a 15-person Investment Committee that consisted of seasoned Ugandan entrepreneurs and investors. 

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Over 2 days of pitching, the Investment Committee identified 78 Ugandan businesses that were able to demonstrate the potential to effectively utilise the award to sustainably grow and, in turn, deliver positive impact to society through the Sustainable Development Goals and unlocking new opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work to youth directly or indirectly.

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Speaking at the awarding ceremony on Wednesday, 27th October 2021, Patrick Ayota, the Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund said, “The Hi-Innovator is about taking a chance on great business ideas while they are at their most vulnerable stage of their business cycle, and at a point where no financial institution is willing to invest in them.”

“We also targeted businesses in the agriculture value chain such as agro-processing, agro-industry, and service support. We chose agriculture specifically because the sector employs about 73 per cent of the population and has the potential to create more jobs,” he added.

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According to the National Development Plan III (2020-2025), the government has emphasised the need to focus on enhancing value addition in key areas, including agriculture, which has a high potential to generate employment and have a positive multiplier effect on other sectors.	

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Despite this, financial institutions have been reluctant to advance credit to the agriculture sector due to inadequate collateral. Adding to this complexity is the industry being mainly “rain-fed", that is being easily affected by adverse weather conditions and seasonal price fluctuations.

The Covid-19 pandemic also saw banks decreasing their appetite for lending due to an increase in the number of business closures. This in turn affected their ability to honour credit obligations.

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In addition to limited access to low-cost loan financing, a 2018 Uganda Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Initiative survey by Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) found that small businesses are also negatively affected by limited access to information about enterprise establishment and sustainability.	

The Hi-Innovator programme seeks to address these challenges by bringing together and catalysing opportunities among small and growing business entrepreneurs, business incubation services, development partners, and other stakeholders operating in the entrepreneurship ecosystem to accelerate the ecosystem’s maturity.

Cohort 1 Report

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This pioneer Cohort focused on businesses in the Agriculture sector, only 46 businesses were shortlisted to proceed to the next phase of the process - Pre-accelerator Bootcamp where businesses engage with coaches and mentors who prepare them to pitch before a selected Investment Committee. 

Cohort 1 Accelerator

The National Social Security Fund and the Mastercard Foundation have a shared vision of creating and sustaining 132,000 dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for young people, 70% of these for young women in the next 3 years. In the 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE), Uganda was ranked as the second country globally with the most women business owners (38.4%), this being a percentage of the total business owners in the country. This serves as a clear indication that it is crucial to focus on supporting women-owned enterprises as a means of accelerating Uganda’s economic growth and vitality,  and recognising the potential women have towards national wealth creation and women advancement.

&nbsp;

The 2019 World Bank research states that women-owned microenterprises in Uganda generate 30% lower profits than their male counterparts. This could be attributed to gender specific constraints that include childcare responsibilities and time constraints, lack of information and networks, lack of access to finance, and social norms (e.g., mobility constraints, attitudes towards women in business). These constraints greatly contribute to the low participation of women in business accelerator programs and limit their chances of scaling their businesses.

&nbsp;

Based on the unique needs, contexts, sectors and size of the women-owned enterprises, the Hi-Innovator Program launched the Women Accelerator, tailoring it to provide integrated personal agency training complementary to business technical skills trainings specifically for women entrepreneurs. This is focused on developing a growth-oriented mindset, empowering women with the skills needed to surmount social and psychological obstacles, improve their personal agency and leadership which we expect to positively impact their confidence, motivation, and resilience.

Why Women?

Following a screening of over 145 applications over a one-month period week-long boot camp, 118 businesses were then shortlisted to pitch their ideas to a 21-person Investment Committee that consisted of seasoned Ugandan entrepreneurs and investors. 

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Over 2 days of pitching, the Investment Committee identified 66 businesses that were able to demonstrate the potential to effectively utilise the award to sustainably grow and, in turn, deliver positive impact to society through the Sustainable Development Goals and unlocking new opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work to youth directly or indirectly.

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Speaking at the Pitch day in March 2023, Patrick Ayota, the NSSF Deputy Managing Director said that the funding is aimed at giving women entrepreneurs an opportunity to improve their business skills and grow their businesses whilst readying them for future investor funding.

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“We noticed the low participation of women entrepreneurs business initiatives. Whereas Uganda is ranked the second country in the world with the highest number of women business owners (38.4%), according to a 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, a 2019 World Bank stated that women-owned microenterprises in Uganda generate 30% lower profits than their male counterparts,” he said.

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“Through our women-only funding round of the NSSF Hi-Innovator, we will provide opportunities for women entrepreneurs to reverse the trend. We will avail Ugx 75m as seed funding for each women business and our target is to fund at least 100 businesses this round.”

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The NSSF Hi-Innovator Women Accelerator was open to all women entrepreneurs in all economic sectors across the country. Adrian Bukenya, the Mastercard Foundation Country Director expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership saying “Our vision is to play a catalytic role in supporting partners to spur change built on a shared vision and values, equity, and accountability. Our approach is holistic, emphasizing resilience and coordination among local implementing partners. Therefore, we are excited to be partners with NSSF on the Hi-innovator program,” he said.

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Explaining the criteria, Richard Zulu, the Outbox Team Lead, said that participating businesses must have over 50% female ownership or have at least 70% women in top management, must be legally operational in Uganda for at least two years and, employ at least 2 full-time staff, among others.

Women Accelerator Report

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This was the first-ever women-focused cohort. The NSSF Hi-Innovator Initiative sought to support women-owned and women-led small and growing businesses in Uganda across all sectors.

Women Accelerator

The National Social Security Fund and the Mastercard Foundation have a shared vision of creating and sustaining 132,000 dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for young people, 70% of these for young women in the next 3 years. In the 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (MIWE), Uganda was ranked as the second country globally with the most women business owners (38.4%), this being a percentage of the total business owners in the country. This serves as a clear indication that it is crucial to focus on supporting women-owned enterprises as a means of accelerating Uganda’s economic growth and vitality, and recognising the potential women have towards national wealth creation and women advancement.

 &nbsp;

The 2019 World Bank research states that women-owned microenterprises in Uganda generate 30% lower profits than their male counterparts. This could be attributed to gender specific constraints that include childcare responsibilities and time constraints, lack of information and networks, lack of access to finance, and social norms (e.g., mobility constraints, attitudes towards women in business). These constraints greatly contribute to the low participation of women in business accelerator programs and limit their chances of scaling their businesses.

&nbsp;

Based on the unique needs, contexts, sectors and size of the women-owned enterprises, the Hi-Innovator Program launched the Women Accelerator, tailoring it to provide integrated personal agency training complementary to business technical skills trainings specifically for women entrepreneurs. This is focused on developing a growth-oriented mindset, empowering women with the skills needed to surmount social and psychological obstacles, improve their personal agency and leadership which we expect to positively impact their confidence, motivation, and resilience.

Following a screening of over 250 applications over a one-month period week-long boot camp, 122 businesses were then shortlisted to pitch their ideas to a 30-person Investment Committee that consisted of seasoned Ugandan entrepreneurs and investors. 

&nbsp;

Over 2 days of pitching, the Investment Committee identified 98 businesses that were able to demonstrate the potential to effectively utilise the award to sustainably grow and, in turn, deliver positive impact to society through the Sustainable Development Goals and unlocking new opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work to youth directly or indirectly.

&nbsp; 

Speaking at the Pitch day in June 2023, Patrick Ayota, the NSSF Managing Director said "when we launched the NSSF Hi-innovator in May 2021, we set a target of creating 132,000 work opportunities for youths countrywide by 2025. We are close to 50% of that target and as   businesses in the pipeline begin realizing more value from the funding provided, more and more work opportunities will be created."

&nbsp;

“We noticed the low participation of women entrepreneurs business initiatives. Whereas Uganda is ranked the second country in the world with the highest number of women business owners (38.4%), according to a 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, a 2019 World Bank stated that women-owned micro-enterprises in Uganda generate 30% lower profits than their male counterparts,” he said.

&nbsp;

“Through our women-only funding round of the NSSF Hi-Innovator, we will provide opportunities for women entrepreneurs to reverse the trend. We will avail Ugx 75m as seed funding for each women business and our target is to fund at least 100 businesses this round.”

&nbsp;

93 more women-owned businesses have benefitted from the latest round of seed funding after selection by the programme Investments Committee that evaluates competing entrepreneurs.

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The selection follows a strict criterion that includes the potential for scalability, sustainability, governance framework, and impact on the community.

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Richard Zulu, the Outbox Lead, that champions the implementation of the programme explained that potential businesses are selected from the Hi-innovator business academy and are then subjected to a boot camp that prepares them to pitch for seed funding.

Women Accelerator II Report

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This was the second women-focused cohort. 183 women-owned businesses were found eligible to pitch before a well-vetted investment committee.

Women Accelerator II

Following a screening of over 250 applications over a one-month period week-long boot camp, 122 businesses were then shortlisted to pitch their ideas to a 30-person Investment Committee that consisted of seasoned Ugandan entrepreneurs and investors. 

&nbsp;

Over 2 days of pitching, the Investment Committee identified 98 businesses that were able to demonstrate the potential to effectively utilise the award to sustainably grow and, in turn, deliver positive impact to society through the Sustainable Development Goals and unlocking new opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work to youth directly or indirectly.

&nbsp; 

Speaking at the Pitch day in June 2023, Patrick Ayota, the NSSF Managing Director said "when we launched the NSSF Hi-innovator in May 2021, we set a target of creating 132,000 work opportunities for youths countrywide by 2025. We are close to 50% of that target and as   businesses in the pipeline begin realizing more value from the funding provided, more and more work opportunities will be created."

&nbsp;

“We noticed the low participation of women entrepreneurs business initiatives. Whereas Uganda is ranked the second country in the world with the highest number of women business owners (38.4%), according to a 2021 Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, a 2019 World Bank stated that women-owned micro-enterprises in Uganda generate 30% lower profits than their male counterparts,” he said.

&nbsp;

“Through our women-only funding round of the NSSF Hi-Innovator, we will provide opportunities for women entrepreneurs to reverse the trend. We will avail Ugx 75m as seed funding for each women business and our target is to fund at least 100 businesses this round.”

&nbsp;

93 more women-owned businesses have benefitted from the latest round of seed funding after selection by the programme Investments Committee that evaluates competing entrepreneurs.

&nbsp;

The selection follows a strict criterion that includes the potential for scalability, sustainability, governance framework, and impact on the community.

&nbsp;

Richard Zulu, the Outbox Lead, that champions the implementation of the programme explained that potential businesses are selected from the Hi-innovator business academy and are then subjected to a boot camp that prepares them to pitch for seed funding.


Following a screening of over 300 applications over a one-month period week-long boot camp, 80 businesses were then shortlisted to pitch their ideas to a 28-person Investment Committee that consisted of seasoned Ugandan entrepreneurs and investors. 

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During the year's pitch-day, the Investment Committee identified 64 Ugandan businesses that were able to demonstrate the potential to effectively utilise the award to sustainably grow and, in turn, deliver positive impact to society through the Sustainable Development Goals and unlocking new opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work to youth directly or indirectly.

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Speaking at the awarding ceremony on 17th October, 2023, Alex Rumanyika, NSSF Head of Strategy, said, “Our goal for the Hi-innovator program is to invest in atleast 500 enterprises by 2025. The businesses selected today are an affirmation that we are on the right track to reach that target within the set timeframe,” he said.

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Rumanyika added that the selected businesses would be subjected to a final due diligence process before they receive the funds to ensure efficiency and that they fully comply with the program requirements. Each business will receive shs75 million seed funding upon successful due diligence.”.

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Representing the Implementation partners, Richard Zulu, the founder at Outbox that is the Lead project Implementing partner, emphasized that the above sectors were given priority this time around because of their potential to create dignified and fulfilling work opportunities among youth and women.”

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This brings the the programme's impact to this below; 
1. Number of Small &amp; Growing Businesses seed funded under Hi-innovator to date – 242
2. Number of jobs created since program inception in 2021– 111,293 jobs of which 81,828 are youth
3. Seed funding provided – Ushs18 billion (funders: NSSF &amp; Mastercard Foundation)
4. Entrepreneurs trained through the NSSF Hi-Innovator Business Academy – 16,760
5. Youth trained through the NSSF Hi-Innovator Business Academy – 7,954 (47%)
6. Women trained through the NSSF Hi-Innovator Business Academy – 5,343 (32%)

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Some of the winners of the funding include Damba Kezaala Enterprises a dynamic agricultural venture dedicated to empowering agropreneurs and agricultural entities, Frotexured Limited that manufactures organic beauty and hair products and InfoSec Technologies Limited developers of the SmartCase Manager, a Ugandan-made, holistic Law Firm Management System tailored to streamline and automate business processes for law firms and legal departments among others.

Why Cohort 3?

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Cohort 3 will focus on Agriculture, Digital Economy, and Light Manufacturing sectors. 

Cohort 3 Accelerator

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Access to mentorship throughout the process

Mentorship

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Receive upto $20,000 equity financing to scale your operations.

Funding

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Access & exposure to investors to scale your business

Investors

The business should have launched a product or service to market and received early customer feedback with some revenue (at least UGX 20 Million in the previous two years). 

The business should be legal and actively operational for at least two years and should not have raised more than UGX 1 billion in either grant, convertible grants, venture capital or Private Equity at the time of submission.

Your application must be submitted through the Hi innovator Business Academy website. Applications received by email, WhatsApp or in person will not be accepted.

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Legal Registration

You must have a fully registered business with Uganda Registry Services Bureau (URSB), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), and The National Social Security Fund (NSSF).

The Business must have 2 Co-founders

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Compliance

The Hi-Innovator initiative requires founder participation. All founding team members must commit to fully participate in at least 90% of the scheduled learning labs, and mentorship sessions in the initiative. Founding team members not fully committed to the initiative will not be accepted in the initiative, and their removal may render the remaining team ineligible for the program. Employees of NSSF, Outbox, other selected partner entrepreneurship support organisations and any individual involved in the Hi-Innovator program design, production, promotion, execution, distribution and any such individual’s immediate family or household, are not eligible to participate in this initiative.

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Founder participation

Individuals applying for the Accelerator must be 18 years and above. 

Teams must have 2 founding individuals. A team of one founding individual will not be considered. 

You must be a Ugandan national OR a non-national currently living and working in Uganda with an up-to-date working permit. Non-Ugandans running a business that includes a Ugandan in an ownership and decision-making role will be considered.

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Youth Participation

Eligibility Criteria

Join one of our 6-month accelerators to gain funding, mentorship, and access to the Alumni network for life. The NSSF Hi-Innovator accelerators have one goal: to help entrepreneurs succeed. During each six-month program, we surround companies with the best mentors and an unrivalled network of corporate partners, investors, and alumni. We provide funding and fundraising opportunities, workshops and curated resources, not to mention countless moments where you can learn from your peers. It’s a proven model that’s helped build thousands of successful companies, all over the world.

About Our Accelerators

Does your business have the potential for great impact? Can you demonstrate how your solution differentiates from already existing initiatives?

Are you an Entrepreneur with a big dream?

Benefits

Eligibility Criteria

Our Accelerators