Uwezo Fund Registration and Application

Launched in September 2013 through the Legal Notice No. 21 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2014. Uwezo Fund is a vision 2030 flagship program, aimed at enabling Women, Youth, and Persons with disability access finances to promote business and enterprises at a constituency level.

Uwezo Fund provides mentorship opportunities to its beneficiaries thus enabling them to take advantage of the 30% government procurement preference via its Capacity Building Programme.

The Fund, therefore, is an avenue for incubating enterprises, catalyzing innovation, promoting industry, creating employment, and growing the economy.

The Fund is managed by an oversight board at the national level and a Constituency Uwezo Fund Committee (CUFCs) at the constituency level government representatives and members of various Wards.

Read Also: Youth Fund Kenya

What are the Objectives of Uwezo Fund?

The Funds objectives are to

• Expand access to finances in the promotion of youth and women businesses and enterprises at the constituency level.
• Generate and promote self- employment for the youth and women and lastly to
• Model an alternative finance framework in funding community is driven development.

Eligibility Criteria for Uwezo Fund Applicants.

Applicants shall qualify for Fund loan application if

For a group

• It has to be registered with the Registrar of Societies, the department of social services, or Cooperatives.
• Must have members aged between 18 and 35 years whereas the women’s groups shall be made up of women aged 18 years and above?
• Is based and operational at the constituency it seeks to make an application for consideration.
• Operates a table banking structure or any other group fund structure where members make monthly contributions according to the groups’ internal rules.
• Have evidence of monthly contributions
• Hold a bank account in the name of the group.

For an institution

• the Institution should be a registered entity and should have listed youth and women groups within it.

How to apply for Uwezo Fund

To apply for Uwezo fund,

1. Ensure that you meet the eligibility criteria stated above
2. Fill in an application form (available at the Constituency Uwezo Fund Management Committee office).
3. Submit the application together with the relevant documents to the Constituency Uwezo Fund Management Committee office. and await notification from the committee.

Related: All you need to know about the Women Enterprise Fund.

Eligible Amount

For administration of the Fund

Eligible qualifying amounts for a group shall be a minimum Ksh 50,000 and a maximum of Ksh 500,000 at any one time.  The following criteria are used to determine the total amount that a group is eligible to receive

• The Length of time the group has been in existence
• Total amount contributed by the group
• Current status of contribution and
• The proposed business plan for the loan applied

Note: The eligible amount shall be three times the group savings BUT it shall not be

• Below Kshs. 50,000 (Minimum).
• More than the amount applied for in the application form and
• More than Kshs. 500,000 (Maximum).

Uwezo Fund Contact Details

Lonrho House, 16th Floor, Standard St.
P. O. Box 42009 – 00100, Nairobi
Call: +254 020 2210557
info@uwezo.go.ke
ceo@uwezo.go.ke
complaints@uwezo.go.ke
programmes@uwezo.go.ke
hr@uwezo.go.ke
https://www.uwezo.go.ke

Also read How to apply for the Kenya Education Fund Sponsorship