IICD supported project: Improve Competence for Rural Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Using ICT

Countries: Uganda [UG]
Sectors: livelihood

Summary

One of the instruments that the Uganda government is using in order to alleviate poverty is promoting rural industrialization and turning primary/raw products to semi-finished or processed commodities through rural Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs). The Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), the project owner of this project, is providing assistance to SMEs through partner centres in the country. UIRI offers training to the rural SMEs to improve their technical and management competence and it offers advisory services to the SMEs. This project is intended to improve the performance of the SMEs, by improving the quality of teaching materials and by providing ICT equipment such as telephone, fax, computers, printers, photocopier, and connectivity for email to the partner centres which can be utilized by the SMEs.

Update

Updated: 2005-07-13

The project started with the establishment of the project team, the
procurement of equipment. A start was also made with the digitalisation
of teaching materials.

Objectives

The main objectives of this project are:

• Train potential and existing entrepreneurs/staff of enterprises to start, improve and manage their businesses using applied technology, and by applying effective business management and entrepreneurship skills
• Improve the efficiency of communication for entrepreneurs/staff of enterprises.
• Set up an advisory and information service to assist rural-based producers.
• Set up an information reference system using both ICTs and traditional libraries, to provide information on applied technologies, and relevant business management information.

Planned outputs

The most important planned outputs are:

• Rural-based partner centres selected, a memorandum of understanding, and terms of reference;
• Training materials for use at partner centres;
• Reference materials for use at partner centres;
• ICT equipment procured and installed;
• Manuals of procedure to guide operations of the centres;
• Personnel for partner centres recruited;
• Identified the technology and business knowledge gaps the enterprises are experiencing;
• Business Centre computers, printers, telephones, fax, email service and photocopying service used;
• Training of end-users (entrepreneurs and enterprises) by partner centres: A programme and work plan drawn up;
• Advisory/information sessions held with entrepreneurs/enterprises; and,
  
• Services directory.

Development Impacts

The direct beneficiaries are SMEs and the persons who are working in the SMEs. It is hoped that through this project SMEs are in a better position to improve the quality of their services and that the SMEs are in a better position to react more quickly upon demands from customers and service providers.

It is also expected that through the visualisation of teaching materials that the knowledge on how to process materials and improve their business skills it will have a positive impact on knowledge as compared with the more traditional forms of teaching.

Management and organisation

The day-to-day management will be carried out by the Project Implementation Team (PIT), which will consist of people working at the partner centres. UIRI staff members will also actively be involved in the project. The Supervisory Committee will supervise the PIT.

The focal person at each partner centre is responsible for drafting work plans, implementation of the approved programs, management of resources and logistics and submission of monthly reports to the project coordinator. The focal person is supported from the project office in Kampala.

Market and finance

This project targets Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) in mainly rural areas.

Project Owner : Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI)

Project Partners : IICD and BCO alliance

Contact Organisation : IICD

Project Contact : Mr. Arjan de Jager