GEW 2025 Partner Activations – SUMZ, NUMA & IMUKA
Title
GEW Uganda 2025 Partner Activations: SUMZ, NUMA and IMUKA Turn Ideas into Action
Introduction
Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Uganda 2025 was not only about conferences and panels; it was also about taking entrepreneurship into factories, universities and virtual classrooms. Three flagship partner activations – SUMZ Factory Visits, NUMA’s university engagement at Ankole Western University, and the IMUKA Juniors Virtual Bootcamp – demonstrated how practical learning, youth inclusion and innovation can bring the GEW theme “Together We Build – Fueling Uganda’s 10X Growth” to life.
1️⃣ SUMZ Factory Visit – Psalms Food Industries Ltd
At Psalms Food Industries Ltd, home of SUMZ snacks, GEW Uganda 2025 participants were invited behind the scenes for guided factory tours running between 14th and 21st November 2025.
Rather than discussing entrepreneurship in a boardroom, this activation placed visitors on the factory floor, seeing first-hand how a Ugandan snacks manufacturer organises production, manages quality, and handles distribution at scale. Each tour included a Q&A session on entrepreneurship, giving participants the opportunity to ask practical questions about:
- Starting small and growing into a formal operation
- Managing costs, waste and quality control
- Hiring and managing a production workforce
- Building a recognizable consumer brand in a competitive market
By opening its doors during GEW, Psalms Food Industries Ltd demonstrated that real-world exposure is one of the most powerful learning tools for emerging entrepreneurs. The SUMZ factory visit directly supported GEW’s mission by:
- Turning a successful Ugandan enterprise into a live classroom
- Showing that large-scale manufacturers often begin as small cottage operations
- Encouraging participants to see manufacturing as an attainable path, not a distant ideal
2️⃣ NUMA & Ankole Western University – “Together We Build” Student Activation
In Kabwohe, GEW Uganda 2025 reached the next generation of founders through a university-based activation with students from Ankole Western University (AWU). The session brought together Year 2 and Year 3 entrepreneurship students, under the GEW-aligned theme “Together We Build.”
Supported by NUMA and Enterprise Uganda, the engagement focused on:
- Resilience – students shared personal stories of pushing through setbacks, balancing studies and early-stage business ideas.
- Commitment – discussions emphasised sticking with ideas long enough to test them properly.
- Materialising ideas – facilitators and students explored practical steps to move from class projects and concepts to real ventures.
The objective was clear: equip students to materialize their ideas, not just write about them in assignments. By situating GEW activities within the university environment, this activation:
- Reinforced that entrepreneurship is a viable career path for young Ugandans
- Encouraged students to view their communities as spaces full of solvable problems
- Linked theoretical coursework to the broader national movement captured in #GEW2025
In line with the GEW spirit, the AWU–NUMA–Enterprise Uganda collaboration showed how universities can act as launchpads for regional entrepreneurship, not just examination centres.
3️⃣ IMUKA Juniors Virtual Bootcamp – Youth, Digital Tools and Investor Readiness
While some GEW Uganda 2025 activities took place in physical venues, the IMUKA Juniors Virtual Bootcamp demonstrated the power of digital-first capacity building. Running from 17th to 21st November 2025, the bootcamp was designed to help young entrepreneurs move their ventures from concept to investor-ready in just five days.
Using a blend of:
- Live sessions
- Digital tools
- A validated business plan as the core output
participants were guided through key building blocks of a fundable business. The bootcamp was positioned as part of a global GEW environment that engages entrepreneurs in over 200 countries, giving Ugandan youth a sense of belonging to a much larger movement.
Key features included:
- Short, focused learning blocks suitable for young, busy founders
- Practical assignments that fed directly into a usable business plan
By the end of the five days, participating entrepreneurs had sharpened their business models, strengthened their documentation, and taken concrete steps towards investor readiness.
The IMUKA Juniors Virtual Bootcamp underlined several GEW priorities:
- Youth-focused entrepreneurship capacity building
- Leveraging digital delivery models to reach entrepreneurs regardless of location
- Reinforcing that serious business work can happen online with the right structure and tools
Conclusion
Across factory floors, university lecture rooms, and virtual bootcamps, GEW Uganda 2025 partner activations with SUMZ, NUMA and IMUKA showed that entrepreneurship support is most powerful when it is:
- Practical – grounded in real businesses and real challenges
- Inclusive – reaching students and young founders, not only established SMEs
- Innovative – using both physical and digital spaces to build capacity
Together, these activities enriched the national GEW calendar and deepened the message that Uganda’s 10X growth will be built one factory visit, one student activation, and one youth bootcamp at a time.