By Anthony Wesaka
Africa-Press – Uganda. Of the 44 percent businesses registered by women, only one percent have ever bid for government tenders, a new report shows.
According to the report titled ‘Towards Gender Balance: Understanding the Barriers and Solutions To Include Women-led Businesses in East Africa (Uganda),’ most of the women-led businesses cannot compete for tenders with those managed by their male counterparts because of several challenges such as corruption.
The report said women own only 38 percent of businesses in Uganda compared to their male counterparts who own 62 percent.
“Of the 38 percent businesses in Uganda owned by women, only 44 percent of these businesses are registered,” the report released in Kampala on Friday reads in part.
Corruption, demand for sexual favors, lack of knowledge of existing government tenders were some of the challenges that the report cited as hampering participation of women-led businesses.
“During our research, some women said they wouldn’t mind sleeping with a man for five minutes as long as at the end of it, they are able to win a tender worth Shs500m,” Ms Olive Kabatweirwe, the lead researcher, said while presenting the findings.
The report, released by Africa Freedom of Information Center, further shows that the nature of businesses that women have contracted are often for lower value than the large-scale public works that are taken over by men.
Low value contracts
“Women only engage for lower value contracts where they are unable to break even, 33 percent of the women-led businesses engaged in the study were contracted for catering services, stationery, or agricultural inputs; 29 percent for consultancy services, 16 percent for construction works; 5 percent for clothing services,” she said.
One such contract that the report cited is by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) that has reserved the cleaning contracts of all the city roads in the five divisions for women.
“KCCA has since 2015 initiated an initiative intended to support low-income earning women in the city. The process started by registering women-led businesses in all the five divisions of Kampala, they tendered some work reserved explicitly for vulnerable groups including women, and have since seen more women engaging in procurement,” the report states.
The executive director of Africa Freedom of Information Center, Mr Gilbert Sendugwa, said Uganda spends 60 percent of its annual budget on procurement but the government is not giving women-led companies these contracts.
“Only less than one percent of those who do government procurements are companies owned by women and majority of these companies are situated in Kampala and Wakiso districts,”Mr Sendugwa said.
“This now means that women are left behind because they are not participating in government procurement and yet President Museveni in his manifesto said they are to secure the future of everyone, including women,” he added.
In Uganda, labour laws are gender-neutral and mainly concerned with establishing a safe and good working environment for employees in the formal sector. But in practice, women experience direct and indirect discrimination in employment; and experience wage inequality such as unpaid work.
Article 21 of the Constitution provides for the right of every person to own property while article 26 (1) provides that the State shall provide the facilities and opportunities necessary to enhance the welfare of women to enable them realise their full potential and advancement.
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