The Executive Director of Management Training and Advisory Centre(MTAC ) in Nakawa Mr Soteri Nabeeta has asked ministry of finance to allocate them shs25.8billion to be able to train youth and women in entrepreneurial skills.
Officiating at the 10th graduation ceremony on Friday, Nabeeta said this programme would play a significant role in the realization of planned development through the Parish Development Model.
“The overall purpose for this programme is to enhance the entrepreneurial ability of the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are sensitized about job creation and equipped with skills in making different products including pavers, candles, sanitary pads, exercise books, soap (bar soap and liquid soap), bakery products, saloon products (jelly, shampoo etc), charcoal briquettes among others. This programme also supports organised groups in value addition for instance making wine among others,”he said.
According to Nabeeta the job creation training program offered at no cost has trained 7690 youths and women since last year.
According to him, the programme has been widely appreciated by the recipients and the requests from the population for this programme are overwhelming.
He however said that MTAC has appealed to parliament to allocate at least shs25.8 billion to enable them train at least 100 participates from each constituency in the country to translate into 23,800 entrepreneurs.
“This money would enable us to equip each of the trained participants with a startup tool kit and ultimately increase productivity.”Nabeeta explained.
The Minister for Trade, Francis Mwebesa hailed MTAC for contributing to the country’s socio-economic transformation agenda.
“The distinctive feature of MTAC is that it provides training to guarantee growth and sustainability of businesses, particularly MSMEs which have high mortality rate and yet they are the backbone of our economy,” Mwebesa said.
“ Apart from other courses in the areas of accounting and finance, management, ICT, procurement and logistics management among others, MTAC has been active in providing vocational training in various fields; such as tailoring, fashion and design, bakery and cookery, hair dressing and Cosmetology, the making of pavers, soap, jelly, candles, reusable sanitary pads, leather goods, etc., even in areas where the organization lacks fully functional outreach centers. These abilities have the capacity to transform jobless people into great entrepreneurs.” he added.
During the 10th graduation atotal of 802 students including 544 females graduated in different disciplines to add onto the 127 students who graduated from MTAC Mbarara and MTAC Ntungamo earlier on March, 15.
Management Training and Advisory Centre (MTAC) is a body corporate under the Ministry Trade, Industry and Cooperatives.
The Centre was inaugurated on 14th July 1964 as a project of the Government of Uganda (GOU) that was funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the executing agency was the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The successful project was subsequently transformed into the MTAC, which was established by the Management Training and Advisory Centre Act, 1969
