Who are our UGEFA Business Advisors?
Ancywax provides solutions in Media, Marketing and Consultancy. They partner with different entities, helping them deliver support to their different target groups. They envision themselves in the Ugandan ecosystem as a bridge between the market and the clients trying to push a product or a service. In Media, they help businesses and partners to understand the market, communicate with this market and determine where within the market to focus. In Marketing, Ancywax provides cutting edge solutions for its clients’ products and services while ensuring that needs and wishes are met. The Consultancy branch is primarily driven by business development practices, such as they are delivering within the UGEFA Programme, to stay relevant and competitive.
Their mission is to empower small and medium businesses with quality service that can ensure their growth to being bigger, established companies in the future. They have worked with around 130 companies and established 12 partnerships. Ancel Ochino, Founder and CEO, and Fahad Ndugwa, Chief Marketing Officer, have been busy the past few months working with the first cycle of UGEFA-supported enterprises. We caught up with Ancel to learn more about his experience as a UGEFA Business Advisor and within his broader work at Ancywax:
And, what topics do they enjoy working with business on?
It comes as no surprise that marketing is one of Ancel’s favourite topics. “It is the core of what we do”, as he explains, “we are founded on the principles of marketing”. For Ancywax, marketing is a key part: “that is how a business will survive in the market and will be known”, explains Ancel. Therefore, that is one of the topics that they most enjoy working on within the UGEFA Programme, alongside with financial topics, which they find exciting.
And, how do they support green SMEs in particular…?
SMEs play a huge role in today’s economy. It is important to ensure that what SMEs are doing is aligned towards a green economy. Ancywax supports enterprises that are working to protect the environment. For instance, they want to work with SMEs that are using less paper for printing, or enterprises in the mobility sector working with electric vehicles to innovation products and services. “We want to work with people who understand the importance of a clean environment”, explains Ancel. SMEs play a very big role in this change and Ancywax supports them by making sure that whatever these businesses are doing or planning to do has an “environment first” policy.
What more can we do together?
“We as a company love practicing green”, explains Ancel. Through the partnership with UGEFA, “we work on a programme that will deliberately help the environment”. It is nothing new that climate change is a big concern. That is why Ancywax’s work focuses on moving towards SDG achievement, especially the ‘Life on Land’ and ‘Life Below Water’ goals. As a business, Ancywax makes sure that whatever they are working on is aligned with these goals, as well as protecting the environment more broadly.
However, the path is not an easy one. Most people still do not appreciate the importance of the green movement in Uganda. It has been a difficult journey. Even when talking to people about green financing, they tend to think that financing has nothing to do with the environment, explains Ancel. And it has been difficult to direct financing for green businesses compared to other polluting companies or factories. “Our message is very clear: whatever you are doing, make sure that you are protecting the environment, and at the same time you are making sure that the future is protected by practicing green” for Ancywax.
Ancel also reflects how, thanks to UGEFA, the ‘green’ factor has been brought into the equation: “For the first time in a long time there is financing going towards green businesses in Uganda”. That will also perhaps wake up the local bodies into taking steps to be more active in this space of green finance for SMEs, Ancel hopes.
What is their vision for the future of green SMEs in Uganda?
Luckily, the road ahead will be smoother. Ancel predicts that renewable energies will be a big thing in the future. Electric vehicles will come in and businesses will acknowledge the tremendous opportunity of integrating environmental considerations into their business models. Now people have started waking up to the adverse events of climate change, explains Ancel, and this is making a change in businesses too. Big manufacturers are starting to make their own ‘green plans’ for sustainable manufacturing. Some enterprises are already offering recyclable packaging. So, there is a movement that it is starting to reach the big companies too. And “it is a space that will grow in the future”, says Ancel.
The green economy will grow and people will be able to look at this form of economic activity that preserves natural resources for future generations as the new normal. So far, it has not been something that was easily embraced, explains Ancel. But now the conversation has been started and the actors in the ecosystem are aware of what Business Developers such as Ancywax, and UGEFA within a broader field, are trying to do. This will keep the movement going. In the future, Ancywax predicts that the question will be “how fast can I be green?” rather than “why should I be green?”.
Just keep in mind: “Whatever you are doing, what positive impacts can [your activities] have on the environment?”
Learn more about Ancywax on...
Website: https://ancywax.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ancywax
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ancywax
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ancywax/
