Thanks to the move of liberalizing business and the efforts by the government to take on gender-sensitive policies and deliberate effort towards woman emancipation.
Uganda leads Africa in countries that have a high number of women-owned enterprises as a percentage of total business owners despite poor entrepreneurial supporting factors.
It was followed by Ghana and Botswana in second and third place respectively, in a group of 58 markets around the world profiled by the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs (Miwe) 2019.
Uganda is ranked first at 38.2 per cent of female owners as a percentage of total business owners, Ghana is second with 37.9 per cent, Botswana third with 36 per cent, Malawi is seventh with 31.1 per cent, and Angola ninth with 30.3 per cent. This means that in Uganda and Ghana, nearly four in every 10 business owners are women. According to the researchers owf these markets, this suggests that in these economies, women are just as inclined as men to engage in entrepreneurship.
Miwe highlights the progress of women entrepreneurs based on publicly available data from organizations like the International Labour Organisation, Unesco and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
The index tracks the gender gap among business owners, comparing their numbers against those of men-owned enterprises and considers women business owners who employ at least one person other than themselves.
Despite being poorer, less developed and lagging behind in terms of knowledge assets, financial access and support for entrepreneurs, Uganda, Ghana, Botswana, Malawi and Angola made it to the top 10 globally.
The US was ranked fourth with 35.1 per cent of women led businesses, followed by New Zealand at fifth position and Russia at position six with 31.8 per cent and 31.2 per cent respectively. Business ownership rate is lowest in Saudi Arabia with only an average of only 1.6 per cent business owners being women.
Whereas the report says that necessity-driven entrepreneurial activities has led to a surge in female entrepreneurs in Uganda, it should realized that the government of Uganda has put in efforts to empower women and have them beat cultural norms to take on lead positions in entrepreneurship and civil service.
