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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | As policymakers and development financiers search for scalable solutions to Uganda’s youth unemployment challenge, the African Agribusiness Incubators Network (AAIN) is advancing a market-driven proposition: that weak incubation systems, rather than a shortage of entrepreneurial ideas, remain one of the biggest constraints to enterprise growth.
AAIN, a pan-African network headquartered in Accra, Ghana, has rolled out the Business Incubation Management (BIM) Executive Accreditation Course as a strategic intervention to professionalise incubation and improve the commercial viability of start-ups supported across Africa. The course targets the supply side of entrepreneurship incubators, accelerators, training institutions and enterprise-support organisations where capacity gaps often translate into high start-up failure rates.
International incubation frameworks such as infoDev of the World Bank Group demonstrate that well-managed incubation networks can deliver measurable economic returns. Over a decade, infoDev-supported incubators helped create about 25,000 firms and nearly 250,000 jobs worldwide. Benchmarks from UBI Global and the European Business and Innovation Centre Network further show that performance-based incubation improves governance, investor readiness and firm survival.
AAIN’s BIM course adapts these models to African market realities. Delivered over 12 weeks in a blended online and face-to-face format, the programme equips senior executives, policymakers, curriculum planners and incubator managers with tools to design, accredit and continuously improve incubation systems aligned with global standards. Each module carries defined credits, positioning the course for formal recognition within national higher-education and accreditation frameworks.
For Uganda, the business case is clear, officials said. Incubators serve as deal pipelines for early-stage enterprises, particularly in agribusiness, manufacturing, creative industries and services. However, inconsistent quality, weak governance and limited market orientation have undermined their effectiveness.
AAIN officials believe that standardising incubation management will improve the investment readiness of start-ups, strengthen linkages with finance providers and increase the likelihood that supported businesses scale beyond subsistence levels.
The BIM initiative is being implemented in Uganda under the Sustainable Inclusive Youth Employment Pathways (SIYEP) programme, a five-year, Mastercard Foundation-funded initiative delivered through a consortium led by the Agency for Accelerated Regional Development (AFARD). SIYEP aims to transition 258,000 young women aged 15–35 into employment, with at least 70% achieving what the programme defines as dignified and fulfilling work.
Within SIYEP, AAIN leads the Business Incubation Model, focusing on strengthening 25 anchor incubators and their associate partners across the country. These incubators are expected to support 25,000 rural young women including refugees and women with disabilitiesby combining technical training with business mentorship, financial literacy and market integration.
Speaking during a recent national meeting of anchor incubators, AAIN Business Incubation Management Specialist Enock Ampumuza said the BIM curriculum isn’t designed to correct a common market failure.
“In Uganda, many people start businesses, but market access and finance quickly become binding constraints,” Ampumuza said.
“This model ensures that incubators aggregate production, improve bargaining power and link entrepreneurs to finance, so businesses can actually survive and grow.”
AAIN has already entered into memoranda of understanding with selected financial institutions to improve access to credit for incubated enterprises. The goal is to make businesses bankable by strengthening governance, cash-flow management and market linkages areas that often deter lenders and investors from engaging with early-stage entrepreneurs.
For incubators on the ground, the shift is expected to improve operational efficiency and commercial outcomes. Agribusiness incubator CURAD says the training sharpens the focus on profitability and sustainability, rather than activity-based support. “A business must pay the entrepreneur first before it can employ others,” said CURAD Executive Director Apollo Segawa.
“That financial discipline is what many start-ups lack.”
Sandra Ajolorwot, a monitoring and evaluation specialist at Women and Rural Development Networks (WORUDET), said the programme had come at a critical time, particularly for young women in refugee settlements in northern Uganda.
“With food rations reduced and many women left to care for families alone, this project will help disadvantaged young women and persons with disabilities to start businesses and cope with the economic realities,” she said.
Beyond agribusiness, the model targets non-farm sectors such as light manufacturing, creative industries and home-based enterprises, reflecting a broader view of where growth and jobs can be generated. By professionalising incubation, AAIN argues that Uganda can build a stronger pipeline of viable small and medium-sized enterprises capable of absorbing labour and contributing to tax revenues.
Officials said that if accredited by national quality-assurance bodies such as the National Council for Higher Education, the BIM course could also open up new revenue streams for universities and training institutions offering executive-level incubation programmes, while aligning local curricula with internationally recognised standards.
