Challenges Uganda

Challenges Uganda is The Challenges Group’s arm in Kampala, and has been supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and young people in Uganda since 2014.

Sharing a workspace with an exciting community of tech entrepreneurs in Hive Colab, Kampala, Challenges Uganda has supported more than 150 growth-potential social enterprises in sectors such as agriculture, renewable energy and crafts.

Our team has also provided employment support to more than 200 young Ugandans in that time, equipping them with skills from a combination of practical business placements and accredited management training from the Chartered Management Institute.

The Challenges Uganda team has combined implementation of the Access Africa Programme with enabling the SME ecosystem in the solar sector. We have helped organisations based in the UK combat malnutrition by helping them understand the market for micro-greens in Ugandan schools and the demand for alternative fridge technology. Challenges Uganda has also partnered with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the Uganda Solar Energy Association (USEA) to build USEA’s capacity to deliver much-needed business development services to its members.

The Challenges team launched Youth to Work; a youth employability programme in partnership with Standard Chartered Foundation, taking a systematic approach to solving the youth unemployment problem in Uganda by equipping young people with the skills to create growth opportunities for SMEs.

Like our other Challenges teams, we take an ecosystem-enabling approach to our work in Uganda, developing partnerships and solutions that support SMEs to grow and for young people to gain meaningful employment. Our past work means we have a wealth of experience in some of  Uganda’s most important sectors and we are able to deliver capacity building and training, and our on-the-ground approach means we can focus on tailoring our approach to the client and beneficiary.

Our team of young professionals, many of whom have been trained and worked with Challenges Uganda since its inception, are the embodiment of our approach to development: a focus on skills, training and capacity-building. Our ambition is to work within the dynamic Ugandan business environment to become an ecosystem enabler across multiple sectors and with partners to deliver multi-layered holistic solutions to systemic growth.