By bringing basic financial services to her community, Daniella has enabled dozens of local women to boost their income.

Eighteen-year-old Daniella has set up a local savings and loan group, inspiring and enabling over 50 women from her community to kickstart small businesses and earn an independent income. Members save a small amount each week, using the money to collectively finance each other’s start-up enterprises, from beekeeping to goat rearing, through low-interest loans.

Growing up in a poor family with her mother as the only breadwinner, Daniella became determined to help women find ways to boost their earning power. The Enterprise Challenge programme supported her to build the entrepreneurship, communication and leadership skills to bring her ideas to life.

‘I developed this project to empower women and girls in my community by providing them with opportunities to save, invest, and start their own businesses,’ Daniella explains.

Inspiration and Initiative

Daniella grew up watching her mother, a subsistence farmer and lone parent, struggle to provide for all her children with incredible resourcefulness and resilience. Among her community, financial hardship is widespread.

In low-income neighbourhoods, women’s earnings can be transformative, lifting whole families out of poverty. But in rural Uganda, women face many barriers to finding formal jobs outside their home, from transport to childcare and household responsibilities, so many turn to small-scale entrepreneurship at or near home.

But with limited funds available, and men traditionally controlling family finances, many women have little or no access to money of their own. Despite their ingenuity and effort, women’s limited access to finance, and to business advice, can make it hard to build and grow successful enterprises. Daniella’s grassroots finance group aims to change this, unlocking women’s earning
potential.

‘Many women face financial dependence, limited access to resources, and challenges in running small enterprises,’ she explains.

‘This initiative helps solve these problems by teaching women financial management, offering small loans for business growth, and creating a supportive network where they can gain confidence, generate income and improve their households’ well-being.’

Skills, services and support

Daniella joined The Enterprise Challenge programme, delivered in Uganda through our partner Asante Africa Foundation, to help build her skills to drive change. The programme sees young people develop their entrepreneurship, communication, problem-solving and leadership skills through coaching, mentoring and an online business simulation game.

The training not only helped Daniella develop her own understanding of business and finance concepts, it also saw her build the communication skills to effectively share this knowledge with others, clearly explaining savings strategies, business models and steps for financial growth.

‘The knowledge I learned has enabled me to effectively start and manage my project, guide other women and girls in saving and investing, and build their confidence,’ she explains.

‘These skills have been essential in turning my idea into a sustainable venture that supports women’s financial independence and strengthens our community.’

With Daniella’s group offering business guidance, support and encouragement alongside basic financial services, members have gained an invaluable peer support network as well as practical savings and loan services. And with over fifty women now earning and saving their own money, and investing these funds back into local businesses, Daniella has unleashed a chain reaction of enterprise and empowerment.