Two Belgian organisations (OVO and Trias) have been collaborating to boost entrepreneurship in Uganda over the last 4 years through the B2B linkages.
OVO, or Ondernemers voor Ondernemers, invests in the link between Belgian companies and entrepreneurs and local business initiatives in Africa and selected developing countries. The transfer of knowledge and financing opportunities are at the forefront of their mission. Trias is an international development organisation with a presence in 14 countries worldwide to strengthen the capacities and services of the organisations of family farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs.
The collaboration between OVO and Trias in Uganda is built on the strong entrepreneurial focus of both organisations in Uganda. Whereas OVO is geared more towards providing important and innovative support to individual small- and medium-sized businesses with a social value, Trias supports the respective entrepreneurial member-based organisations as to enhance the quality of the services they provide for their members.
Every year since 2019, 3 – 5 entrepreneurs that have gained scale from the support of Trias and their Ugandan micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs organisations are introduced to OVO under their B2B objective. This way, they can be linked to OVO’s extensive expertise through the different mechanisms they have in place to support individual businesses. Regina Nakayenga, managing director of RENA Beverage Solutions and member of Uganda Small Scale Industries Association (USSIA), is one of such entrepreneurs. She started her business as a retirement plan and, with USSIA’s support, grew her beverages business out to a competitive player on the Ugandan market. In 2019, she won the SusTech4Africa awards after having been selected to participate in OVO’s boost camp to accelerate her enterprise. Through the B2B support, RENA Beverage Solutions has been able to receive additional coaching from specialised OVO mentors and has obtained financing to acquire a teabag processing machine that has taken her business to a higher level. Thanks to this linkage, her production is now boosted and the quality of her products has improved.
Several other enterprises have participated in the competition and the boost camp that has enabled them gain skills to improve on their businesses. So far more than 10 enterprises have been linked to OVO by Trias and partners.
