Kyusa

Kyusa is a purpose-driven organization that empowers and enriches the lives of marginalized youth and women through enterprise development. As an Entrepreneur Support Organization (ESO), we offer a comprehensive suite of business training, coaching, and incubation services to micro and small businesses in underprivileged communities, including urban slums, rural areas, and refugee camps.

Our mission is to cultivate and support entrepreneurial growth, enhancing the survival rate and accelerating the expansion of micro and small enterprises (MSE). Our business support services are designed to foster personal and professional growth, building valuable business competencies, expanding networks, and providing access to market opportunities.

At Kyusa, we are driven by a vision of creating a better future for young people by identifying and nurturing their passions and turning them into profitable, scalable, and sustainable enterprises. Our focus on leadership and business development support services equips the next generation of entrepreneurs with the skills and resources they need to launch and grow their businesses with confidence.

Vision:
Improve the quality of life for youth at the margins of society

Mission:
Empowering the future of youth-led and at-risk businesses by delivering capacity building, leadership, and business development services that ensure their survival and growth. By equipping entrepreneurs with the tools they need to succeed, we strive to create a brighter future for both individuals and communities.

Our Core Values:

Compassion: To see every person we encounter first as a human being with dignity and to empathize in ways that move us into positive action.
Optimism: To see the good in every situation, to dare to dream amidst defeating circumstances, and to have the courage to always rise above fear.
Resilience: The audacity to rise again after every fall and the resolve to never quit no matter how tough the going gets.
Efficiency: The commitment to make the most of what we have so as to produce at our highest ability in ways that serve the interests of our customer.

Goal:
1.5 million youths supported to successfully start & scale their businesses by 2040

Objectives:
Our objectives align with our vision and mission, and they are as follows:

1. Entrepreneurial Empowerment: Our objective is to equip youth with the tools and support they need to turn their passions into profitable, scalable, and sustainable businesses.
2. Business Growth and Sustainability: Our focus is on supporting micro and small businesses to overcome mortality and scale for sustained growth.
3. Peer Leadership Development: We aim to empower youth to become adaptive and effective peer leaders, committed to solving societal challenges and making a positive impact in their communities.

Target beneficiaries:
Our target beneficiaries are the youthful leaders of micro and small businesses from disadvantaged backgrounds in Uganda, including those from low-income families, teenage mothers, and youth in refugee camps and rehabilitation programs. These young entrepreneurs, aged 15 to 35, are passionate about turning their ideas into thriving enterprises that improve their lives and those of their communities.

Programs:
Kyusa provides comprehensive support to entrepreneurs and businesses through three interlocking programs:

Our programs are centered around three core offerings: Financing, Training & Coaching, and Business Consulting & Research.

Our financing programs are designed to help in-crisis micro and small businesses owned by youth entrepreneurs in low-income communities. We provide access to funding and resources to help these businesses increase their production capacity and achieve sustainable growth.

Our training & coaching program is tailored to the needs of each cohort, with sessions running for 6 to 12 weeks. Cohorts are divided into business and social entrepreneurs, with a hybrid format that includes in-person and virtual sessions. We have also launched an online platform offering self-paced courses to a wider audience.

Business consulting is aimed at growing and medium-sized enterprises, providing personalized business training and coaching in exchange for full consulting fees. This is a part of our earned revenue model, designed to ensure that our services are accessible and impactful.

Program outcomes:
Kyusa's impact has been far-reaching and transformative for the youth and women-led businesses we serve. Over the years, we have provided crucial capacity-building support to over 5,000 young entrepreneurs, who now run a collective 1,800 micro and small enterprises (MSEs), providing vital livelihoods for 3,600 individuals.

Our efforts to foster social entrepreneurship have also yielded remarkable results, with 95 social enterprises established to tackle pressing challenges and serving over 2,500 secondary beneficiaries.

Kyusa's innovative programs and initiatives have created opportunities for growth and expansion. Our business study trips, for instance, have provided exposure and networks that have enabled alumni to engage in cross-border trading, while our micro-grant program has supported 125 vendor businesses to recover from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.