Desange Kuenihira, a former refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has been announced as UNHCR’s featured storyteller. After being forced to flee violence in the DRC, she found safety in a UNHCR-supported refugee camp in Uganda. Now, Kuenihira, a graduate of the University of Utah, has resettled in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is the author of Undefeated Woman. This book speaks about her refugee journey. Kuenihira creating unDEfeated In 2020, Kuenihira founded unDEfeated, a nonprofit organization that provides educational and entrepreneurial opportunities for girls and women facing severe financial hardship in
Uganda is one of the countries creating ripples in high-profile tech programs like the Y Combinator accelerator and Google’s $50 million Africa Investment Fund, launched in October last year targeting early and growth-stage startups. The growth of Uganda-based startups comes at a time when the startup ecosystem in Africa has until now been dominated by Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt – countries that continue to receive the bulk of venture capital and other forms of investment. In December 2021, SafeBoda, Uganda’s multi-service and digital payment technology platform, became the
MarketForce, the retail B2B and end-to-end distribution platform founded in Kenya, has raised $40 million in Series A funding for its merchant inventory financing and expansion across Africa. The firm, which first launched in Uganda in 2018, plans to introduce buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options to help merchants access fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) on credit. It also plans to enter additional markets in East and West Africa. Through its merchant super app RejaReja, informal traders can source goods directly from manufacturers and distributors, make and pay for orders digitally, accept payments for utility
