The Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL) has broken ground for the construction of a logistics hub in Namanve Industrial Park as it moves to expand women’s participation in investment and asset ownership.
The project was launched on Tuesday under the theme “Women for Women – Investing for Development”, alongside the launch of the UWEAL Investment Company.
The initiative is designed to shift UWEAL’s focus beyond supporting women to start and grow businesses towards helping them invest, own productive assets and build long-term wealth.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Minister of State for Gender, Labour and Social Development Mary Kuteesa said women must move beyond entrepreneurship to become investors and asset owners.
“Women must not only be trained to run businesses. They must increasingly own the assets on which businesses are built. Women must not only seek investors. They must increasingly become investors themselves,” Kuteesa said.
She said the UWEAL Investment Company represents an important evolution for the association, providing women with opportunities to invest their capital in commercially viable projects while generating returns.
“This is not philanthropy. It is not asking successful women to simply give money away. It is creating structured opportunities through which women can invest their capital in commercially viable assets, earn returns, and at the same time create opportunities for other women to grow,” she said.
Kuteesa said the Namanve Logistics Hub demonstrates that commercial returns and social impact can be pursued together.
“We can build investments that make commercial sense while simultaneously creating jobs, strengthening women-owned businesses, providing infrastructure and expanding women’s participation in Uganda’s economy,” she said.
The minister urged women entrepreneurs, professionals, executives, diaspora investors and others with accumulated savings to consider investing through the UWEAL Investment Company.
She also called on financial institutions, development partners and the private sector to partner with UWEAL to expand the investment model.
UWEAL Board Chairperson Elizabeth Kasenene said the logistics hub marks a major transition for the organisation, which has traditionally focused on mobilising, training and advocating for women entrepreneurs.
“We are marking a transition in the journey of UWEAL and in the journey of women entrepreneurs in Uganda. This Logistics Hub is a symbol of growth, transition and ownership,” Kasenene said.
She said UWEAL’s growing membership has demonstrated that women are already contributing significantly to the economy, but face challenges in accessing infrastructure, markets and investment opportunities.
“The women are there. They are producing. They are trading. They are employing people. They are feeding families. And they are contributing to Uganda’s economy,” she said.
Kasenene said the logistics hub will provide warehousing, aggregation, packaging and market-linkage services, with plans to introduce Common Use Facilities that will allow smaller businesses to access shared processing and production infrastructure.
“A woman should not fail to grow simply because she cannot immediately afford an entire factory. We can provide the bridge,” she said.
UWEAL plans to develop similar enterprise and logistics hubs in districts where it has chapters, with each facility tailored to the economic activities of its area.
Kasenene said the hubs could support grain aggregation and storage, processing, packaging, cold storage and logistics, depending on the needs of each region.
She stressed that the facilities must be commercially sustainable rather than dependent on donor funding.
“We build assets that continue serving women — and generating value — year after year,” Kasenene said.
She also called on government to connect UWEAL’s women producers to public procurement opportunities, particularly in agricultural products.
“If UWEAL aggregates women producers through its Chapters, if we can demonstrate volumes, quality, traceability and consistency, can Government procurement become a reliable market for these women?” she asked.
Kasenene further urged the private sector to support UWEAL with investment partnerships, market access and business development opportunities.
For women entrepreneurs, she said the investment company will create avenues for women at different levels to pool capital, invest together and eventually own assets collectively.
“We want women to save together, invest together and ultimately own assets together. We want the successful woman entrepreneur to invest in an infrastructure that helps another woman entrepreneur grow,” she said.
The UWEAL chairperson said the long-term goal is to move women from earning income to building wealth.
“From mobilisation to investment. From financial inclusion to financial growth. From producing goods to accessing markets. From entrepreneurship to asset ownership. And from earning income to creating wealth,” Kasenene said.
The Namanve facility is therefore positioned as the first step in UWEAL’s broader plan to build a network of commercially sustainable assets that support women-owned businesses while allowing women to participate directly as investors and owners.
