Experiences and Lessons of Youth Agribusiness Incubation at Bishop Stuart University, Western Uganda

Business incubation, a process aimed at supporting the development and scaling of growth oriented, early stage enterprises, can play a significant role in promoting youth entrepreneurship and solving the challenge of youth unemployment. In Uganda, although there is a growing private sector in the country, about 30% of the youths who are institutionally qualified are unable to find jobs due to academic curricula that do not provide employable skills, and entrepreneurial skills to start their own enterprises, among other things. The overall objective of this project therefore was to establish a youth agribusiness incubation hub that would enhance the development of entrepreneurial skills for innovative employment opportunities of young graduates. Specifically, the project seeks to build capacity of young graduates in smart business skills and enterprise management, establish partnership with private and public sectors, and other stakeholders for the purpose of mentoring young graduates, nurture innovative enterprises and ensure their potential to succeed in an open and competitive market environment, and facilitate linkages between the innovative enterprises, potential markets, and relevant market information. This paper shares experiences and lessons in implementing the two-year project that was funded by Mastercard foundation and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) at Bishop Stuart University in western Uganda. Experience shows that youth agribusiness incubation has the potential to enhance entrepreneurship for innovative employment opportunities among young university graduates.