Kampala: TECHz – News Desk
On July 22, 2026, the Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology (UICT) officially launched the fourth and final cohort of its Green Founders entrepreneurship programme.
Supported by the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance alongside the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the initiative forms a core component of the Uganda ICT Industry Promotion Project (UJ Connect).
The fourth cohort brings together 83 selected innovators who will undergo intensive mentorship, business development training, and innovation upskilling. Dr. Amina Zawedde, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, emphasized that the programme is designed to push past theoretical concepts to focus strictly on commercial viability.
“This is not simply training for the sake of training. We are adding value to innovators by shaping their ideas, strengthening their business skills and turning promising innovations into solutions that can succeed in the market,” Dr. Zawedde stated at the launch.
The accelerator directly aligns with the government’s broader objective of scaling Uganda into a $500 billion economy by 2031 through technological enterprise and innovation development. Since its inception, the UJ Connect mentorship initiative has attracted more than 660 applications, directly equipping 118 startups, teams, and individual innovators with strategic support.
Outstanding innovations from earlier cohorts successfully secured between $5,000 and $10,000 in Proof of Concept (POC) grants to fund pilot projects. Furthermore, top-performing startups advanced to exhibit at major global platforms, including the Expand North Star startup expo in Dubai, with additional innovators competing in Rwanda, Japan, and Vietnam. Previous batches have already produced highly targeted local solutions, including UNIHOSTEL (a verified student housing platform), PULSEPAL (an AI-powered blood pressure monitoring solution), and LIBTRACK (a digital school automation system). While the fourth batch marks the final cohort implemented under the current four-year UJ Connect project framework (2023 – 2027), UICT is actively moving to ensure long-term sustainability.
UICT Principal Dr. Fredrick Kitoogo announced that the institute is transitioning the project from a flagship development programme into a permanent pillar of the institution’s curriculum. To cement this, UICT is establishing a dedicated Innovation and Startup Support Hub designed to provide ongoing incubation, prototyping, and investor-readiness services. For the current cohort, the institute has set a firm target: guiding at least six student innovations into fully registered, sustainable enterprises by the end of the programme.
Through specialized Train-the-Trainer (ToT) initiatives for faculty and continuous strategic support from Japanese partners, this collaboration has successfully embedded an enduring foundation for Uganda’ s next generation of tech founders.
