Uganda’s micro-entrepreneurs form the backbone of the country’s economy, yet without evidence of their daily activities such as what they sell, how much and to whom, many remain invisible to the formal financial system. These informal and family-owned businesses – 78 per cent of the labour force is estimated to be informal in Uganda (World Bank and ILOSTAT, 2022) – lack the financial data that would show lenders how their enterprises perform. This trend is particularly true for small agribusinesses who often struggle to survive and account for 68% of informal employment (ILO Informality Dashboard). To make things worse, drought, crop disease, extreme rainfall and sudden price drops can wipe out years of effort in a single season, hitting small agribusinesses led by women, youth and refugees the hardest.

But it is not all grim. With the growth of digital tools usage, this lack of evidence is slowly starting to change. Some entrepreneurs are adopting simple digital tools to record their sales, expenses and stock or to develop bankable business plans, creating the one thing banks and fintechs have long struggled to find at this level: usable data.

Jane Sadia, a former teacher who fled South Sudan in 2016, now runs a small agribusiness and leads a youth group in Kiryandongo refugee settlement. Through WFP and UNCDF training, she has strengthened her business skills, and developed a bankable business plan, and is now excited to access finance to grow her enterprise into a sustainable, thriving business. Photo: Chrismel Wasswa/UNCDF

Building digital footprints

A multi-pronged partnership is working to help agribusiness entrepreneurs, with a focus on those led by women, youth and refugees, not only survive shocks but also expand their businesses, create jobs, and transform their communities. By joining forces and expertise in 15 Ugandan districts in refugee-hosting communities and the Karamoja subregion in Uganda, the World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) are aiming to unveil their potential and turn them into investable businesses.

Through the Agriculture Market Support (AMS) programme, a collaboration between WFP and the Mastercard Foundation, rural entrepreneurs are strengthening their business skills. These efforts are augmented by the unique approach and mandate of UNCDF, one that is to mobilize and catalyse capital flows for impactful investments in high-risk markets. By providing business development services, access to digital tools, seed grants, and working capital loans, UNCDF, via its local partners Safe Plan Uganda, the Innovation Village, Quest Digital Finance, and Asigma, is helping these micro-entrepreneurs digitize their operations, build business skills, and become visible to financial services providers.

When small businesses begin using digital payment channels, mobile money, or simple record-keeping apps, every sale, repayment and expense leaves a trace. Over time, these digital footprints build a rich transaction history that shows how much the business earns, how regularly it receives income, and how reliably it meets its obligations.

Today, alternative credit-scoring algorithms can analyse this data to estimate the enterprise’s repayment capacity, even in the absence of collateral or a formal credit history. This is critical to help them prepare for accessing formal loans, often for the first time, laying the groundwork not just to survive the next shock, but to invest, grow and create jobs.

Jane Sadia and members of her youth group sell fresh vegetables from their agribusiness at Kiryandongo market. The business training is helping them turn small farms into thriving agribusinesses. Photo: Chrismel Wasswa/UNCDF

From survival to enterprise

In the Kiryandongo refugee settlement, about a five-hour drive from Uganda’s capital, Kampala, Jane Sadia, a once successful teacher who was forced to flee South Sudan in 2016, recalls arriving with nothing but her determination to rebuild her life. Today, she runs a small agribusiness and helps lead a youth group that grows vegetables, rears livestock and sells produce in the settlement and nearby markets.

Sadia’s group is one of the businesses that have successfully completed WFP’s skills training, learning how to grow, store and sell more effectively, as well as how to turn a harvest into a sustainable business to ensure food security for her and her community.

UNCDF complements this by helping businesses like Sadia’s register, strengthen recordkeeping, and become investment ready. Between July and August 2025, over 5,000 entrepreneurs took part in these intensive bootcamps, receiving practical business skills training on topics such as loan readiness, business modelling, market analysis, record-keeping, cashflow management, pricing, digital payments and marketing.

Participants then put their ideas on paper and developed their first business plans in agrifood areas such as poultry and piggery, maize milling and beekeeping, transport services and green enterprises such as briquette production.

Sadia and her group have received business planning and graduation preparation support successfully developing bankable business plans. This included simple, practical sessions on understanding their costs, setting prices and maintaining basic business records. They were also guided on how to organize their ideas into a clear, cohesive business plan they can confidently present to a financial institution.

“At first, I was just trying to survive,” Sadia said. “Now I think like a businessperson. I know my costs, I know my customers, and I just completed a business development services training that has helped me and my group understand pricing, record-keeping and basic financial management.”

Her growing confidence and practical skills have transformed the way she and her group manage their business. “We used to write things in exercise books and sometimes forget,” she continued. “Through the training, I learned how to keep proper records and use simple digital tools. It makes me more confident when I talk to financial institutions.”

Sadia and her group have accessed loans from some institutions in the refugee settlement, but most of this has been consumption credit rather than investment in their businesses.

“We now have our records to show we can pay, and we want to move to real business credit that helps us grow,” said Jane Sadia.

Their next step is to get capital for an irrigation system, which would allow them to produce vegetables all year round. “The markets here are full of silverfish,” she said. “There is a big demand for vegetables, but in the dry season we cannot produce enough. We want to stand as entrepreneurs all year, not just for one season.”

The transformation in mindset extends beyond individual groups, reflecting a broader change in the way small agribusinesses approach their work. Local organizations have been key in supporting this shift, providing training, mentorship, and guidance to help farmers and traders see and harness their bigger potential.

“The shift is subtle but important: farmers and traders start to see themselves as entrepreneurs, not just producers,” says Abraham Tumusiime, a Project Coordinator at Safe Plan Uganda, a community-based organization providing training to these groups.

Abraham Tumusiime, Project Coordinator at Safe Plan Uganda, leads one of the training sessions for refugee and host community agribusinesses, equipping entrepreneurs with practical skills in business management, record-keeping and market engagement to help them grow sustainable, investment-ready enterprises. Photo: Chrismel Wasswa/UNCDF.

Data that lenders can trust

For many entrepreneurs, the real challenge is not a lack of ideas, but of data that provides evidence of already flourishing business activities. To move from informal operations to investable businesses, they need a financial track record that lenders can trust. That is where digital tools can make a real difference. With a catalytic grant from UNCDF, fintech partner Quest Digital Finance is customising its digital platform (QBcore) so small agribusinesses can register their enterprises, keep digital records, receive payments and eventually apply for loans from their phones.

In Kiryandongo District, an initial group of around 30 micro and small businesses, mostly women, youth and refugee-led, recently tested the system, using both a Web App and a USSD channel (a text-based menu accessed by dialling a short code on any mobile phone, without needing internet).

The verdict: the platform fits how they do business, but access to mobile devices remains a challenge. Only a few participants own smartphones, so most of the activity takes place on phones that do not require internet access. This works well for basic functions like checking balances, but is less suited to more complex functions, such as stock management.

In practice, most of the entrepreneurs operate in groups, which offers a practical workaround: shared devices and group accounts help bridge the digital divide while still generating the reliable data lenders need.
“Before, I sold my produce and kept the money in cash,” said Sadia. “Now I record my sales on the system. I can see which products move and when I make a profit. It gives me the confidence to approach a lender because I can show real numbers.”

Training participants in Kiryandongo express their own perspectives on how gender norms shape women’s access to finance. Photo: Chrismel Wasswa/UNCDF.

Driving systemic change

Beyond individual entrepreneurs, the partnership is envisioned to shift the wider system, including government entities, financial institutions, telecoms and local groups, towards more inclusive markets. Evidence from the field will contribute to inform policy discussions on digital inclusion, gender-responsive finance and alternative data for credit scoring, while fintech pilots are expected to embed these tools beyond the project cycle.

“This partnership is about going beyond food assistance,” said James Onyinge, a Programme Policy Officer at WFP. “We are supporting people to build viable businesses, connect to markets and access finance. That is what strengthens food systems and self-reliance over the long term.”

By equipping small business owners with the skills and confidence they need to manage their enterprises and access financial support, this partnership helps them recover from setbacks, grow their income, and create opportunities within their communities. With a goal of supporting up to 20,000 agribusiness entrepreneurs by November 2026, these efforts aim to demonstrate how productive digital credit can be especially empowering for women, youth and refugees who are working hard to build a more secure and dignified future for their families.