By Ewan Gaffney, YBI Communications Manager
How much can you learn about the entrepreneurship culture of a country in one week?
The answer, when you are travelling hundreds of miles with the Enterprise Uganda team, is a truly incredible amount.
Late last year I was lucky enough to travel to Uganda along with Sarah Shearman, finalist in the Guardian’s International Development Journalism Competition, to meet the staff from YBI member Enterprise Uganda and some of the young entrepreneurs they have trained in business.
Sarah was tasked with writing about the work of a YBI member, and I took her meet our Ugandan colleagues and learn more about the growth of entrepreneurship as a career choice among young Ugandans.
The official Enterprise Uganda baseball cap is a must have accessory for the entrepreneurs the organisation supports
Enterprise Uganda joined the YBI network in 2012. For more than 10 years the organisation has been working across the country strengthening SMEs and delivering comprehensive training programmes to thousands of young Ugandans who are interested in creating their own business.
The organisation has played a huge role in promoting entrepreneurship to the country’s young people and is a hugely important member of YBI in Africa. In fact we are just embarking on a project in partnership with the UK Government’s Department for International Development to improve the livelihoods of 10,000 young people and their households in five different regions of Northern Uganda
On the first morning I introduced Sarah to Charles Ocici, the infectiously enthusiastic leader of Enterprise Uganda and listened in as he explained the motivations of his organisation. Such is his passion for the cause that to listen to Charles speak is something close to a religious experience.
“Entrepreneurship has the power to drive Uganda to a much higher place, but so many people think it is not for them, that they have no assets, but everyone has something and starting with something, even if it is close to nothing, is the mark of an entrepreneur!” says Charles, banging the table with his palm enthusiastically.
“Enterprise Uganda is trying to teach young people that everyone can become an entrepreneur.”
Stephen Amukun, 21, founder of the Step Man shopping chain
And in the African context, of rapid growth and booming economies, everyone can become an entrepreneur, but what kind of entrepreneur is another question. In Uganda, the picture for aspiring young business people is stratified and challenging.
Over the past few years, there has been a deluge of articles, in magazines like Time and Forbes, which have heralded the dawn of the African entrepreneurship revolution, a new phase in the continent’s long journey towards prosperity, characterised by increased domestic production, homegrown wealth and driven by a crop of young business superstars.
The headlines are repetitive, but Africa is undoubtedly on the rise, and there is truth, if only a simplistic one, in this characterisation. Bigger cities, like the Ugandan capital Kampala, are alive with tech hubs, business incubators and start up accelerators, capable of producing first ‘African Bill Gates’. Many of these young superstars are already making waves on the global stage; in 2013 The World Entrepreneur of the Year chosen by WEF, was 32 year old Ugandan Anish J. Thakkar.
But as Charles Ocici is quick to point out, for many young Ugandans the story is much simpler. Entrepreneurship provides an opportunity to create a sustainable income in a highly competitive and crowded employment market where 50 people apply for every formal employment vacancy. To own a business of your own is not a common aspiration in Uganda and in many cases business is seen as the poor cousin of further education, which is the aspiration of the majority of parents for their children.
In short, the examples of entrepreneurs like Thakkar are valuable, but of equal importance are the hundreds and thousands of smaller business owners who are driving Uganda’s economic development and building up the missing middle that has hindered broad base development in the past decade. Charles reels off example after example of Enterprise Uganda entrepreneurs who have gone on to make fortunes in traditionally unglamorous areas like fish exporting and mechanics. They might not be tech billionaires but they are the business owners that will define the next few decades of Ugandan growth.
Downtown Gulu, in Northern Uganda
Getting these examples the coverage they deserve is crucial. According to Charles, attitudes are the greatest hurdle to overcome to achieve business success. “Entrepreneurship development is much easier to provide for the economy with good infrastructure, but it is much harder to reconstruct the winning attitudes.
Uganda is one of the world’s youngest nations, with 78% of the population under 30, according to the UN Population Fund. Uganda’s labour force is growing at more than 4% per year, which means 10 million people are expected to be added to the workforce by 2020.
Enterprise Uganda teaches recipients of its training to differentiate themselves in a crowded market place, to see opportunities in the challenges faced by other businesses. Key to this approach is having a good understanding the assets at your disposal and thinking strategically about how to exploit them in a distinct and diverse way.
The ability to make the most of what is available is the common thread among the many entrepreneurs I am to meet on my five day whistle stop tour of the country.
The next day, as we drive out of Kampala and tarmac quickly turns to deep red soil George Oumo of Enterprise Uganda explains: “Uganda is full of potential and assets are all around, we need to show people how to spot them and to understand the value of what they already have.”
Heading north to the town of Lira
This challenge is especially prevalent in the North of Uganda, where years of fierce civil war has led to and culture of handouts and dependency, where the lack of a formal economy leaves many people dependent on aid and external support.
This point is brought into sharp relief as we speed north through miles and miles of lush green countryside: ”Look at all this,” George says, “can you believe people would send food aid to this place when we have such fertile lands? The problem today is that people expect to reap where they did not sow.”
The first entrepreneur we meet is a young lady named Leticia Nabirye.
Uganda entrepreneur Leticia Nabirye stands in the orchard that supplies her restaurant
Leticia has recently returned to her family home in Kataka Parish, Tirinyi in the sub-county of Kibuku, after some years trying to carve out a professional career in Kampala. Like many young Ugandans she believed that heading to the capital to get a professional job was the natural progression for someone like her. It was through discussions with Enterprise Uganda that she realised that there were hugely valuable assets in her community that she could exploit to create a sustainable business and a brighter future.
Leticia Nabirye (centre) with staff she employs in her town centre restaurant, one of her many businesses
Today, she has taken over dormant land owned by her father and is running a goat farm and vineyard, both of which supply a local restaurant she owns in the town centre. Combined the businesses employ eight people.
Entrepreneurs like Leticia are not likely to feature in Forbes magazine or to garner awards, but their success is essential to the future prosperity of Uganda.
A short drive into the town of Serere and we meet wit 21 year old Stephen Amukum. He has grown a single local shop, with the support and mentorship of the staff at Enterprise Uganda, into a chain of three outlets.
Stephen Amukun explains his business expansion plans to journalist Sarah Shearman
In a market where a ‘brand’ is not common for a shop of this type Stephen collectively named his businesses ‘Step Man Stores’, and was happy to show me the illustrations of his brand concept, alongside pages of profit and cash flow projections, that came to him in his very first session with Enterprise Uganda. “Step Man is about the steps I am taking towards my goal of being the largest retailer in the entire Soroti region.” he tells me.
As we headed further north into the regions of Uganda that had been torn apart by the two decade long war with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) the stories of the entrepreneurs we met became more harrowing and the circumstances of their success more inspiring.
It was the story of ex-child soldier Christine Aol that caught the attention of Sarah, and which went on to form the basis of her entry into the Guardian’s journalism competition.
But of all the inspiring people I met that week, the one that stuck in my mind most was Christopher Aweki Dau, a business magnate we met in the town of Lira. I listened in while Sarah interviewed him about his transit and export business in the building site of the 50 premises shopping centre he is constructing. He is the classic larger than life business personality, with a booming voice and crushing handshake, he knows everyone and everyone knows him. Having a conversation with Christopher is a time consuming exercise, as we stroll the busy high street everyone we pass in the road stops to say hello.
Christopher Aweki Dau talks about his many years as an entrepreneurial businessman
Today Lira is a bustling and fast growing town. It was very different when a 19 year old Christopher arrived, with only a bag of seeds harvested from his home village to his name. He had arrived in Lira after spending three full days on the run in the bush, moving only at night to avoid being butchered by mercenaries. He was one of many displaced young people who came to the town at the height of the fighting. Outsiders feared doing business in the region, so growth opportunities were limited. “Our roads were sealed off and you would find rebels on the roadside, killing, looting and setting alight vehicles carrying merchandise,” he says.
Today Christopher is the picture of the complete entrepreneur, his huge range of businesses and professional interests, all developed from that one bag of seeds he brought with him when he arrived in Lira.
Christopher stands in the foundations of the shopping centre he is is constructing in the town of Lira
He too took small steps, trading up gradually and advises young people today do the same: “At whatever level you start your business you should take it seriously, be devoted and save whatever little money you have – don’t spend it all.”
And this is the image of Christopher, explaining his story over the din of a construction site in a booming town that was once the scene of so much despair, that has stayed with me as I write. With the power and dynamism of entrepreneurs like him the future is bright for Uganda and its many millions of aspiring entrepreneurs.
“Business is the most lucrative employment – for sure business is the best!” he concludes, and it is hard to disagree with him!