Investment Opportunities Around You-Dr. Maggie Kigozi

 The Global Business Labs-Uganda on 6^th February 2015, held a business symposium tagged ‘identifying business opportunities around you’. The fairly attended seminar took place at Makerere University’s College of Computing and Information Sciences, and started a few minutes after the advertised time (3; 00 pm). It was hosted by the much respected Pepsi Uganda director, Dr. Maggie Kigozi.

In her power point presentation, Dr. Kigozi tasked the audience that was made up of university students and aspiring youth entrepreneurs, to figure out what kind of entrepreneurs they were –the born or made entrepreneurs.

Using the example of her father who served in the civil service for 60 years, she stressed that in today’s Uganda, jobs, even in the public service , are no longer a given, and cannot be depended upon.

Quoting Mr.  Charles Ocici the executive director, Enterprise Uganda, who put the failure figure for Ugandan business startups, at 85%, she advised the youth to seek knowledge, and invest in business ventures for which they bear a passion.

Joining the bandwagon of those calling for the youth to embrace vocational skills, she noted that the most sought after individuals in Europe and the world over, are plumbers and electrical engineers because of their hands on technical skills.

The youth were warned not to shy away from formal business registration sighting taxation as a hindrance, saying that taxes cannot be charged unless profits are being realized.

They were also advised to properly set their priorities, with emphasis on their core business activities. Prof Kigozi didn’t run short of examples to draw from, this time using herself as one. She recently overcame the procrastination, going into large scale agriculture after shelving the idea for years owing to simple hindrances. Following her interaction with Mrs. Julian Adyeri Omalla of Delight Uganda, the manufacturers of Cheers fruit juice, whose vast farm land lacked basic accommodation to house her, she decided not to let the unavailability of accommodation on her own land, delay her plans. Plans for her first harvest are now in high gear, even without the accommodation structures that she allowed to hold her back all along.

In her presentation of the various opportunities that one could invest in, she sampled the service sectors of education, citing the examples of Lawrence Mukiibi and Dr. J.C Muyingo, tourism, where she regretted the absence of a functional city tour service for international visitors.

Forget the popular belief that the entertainment industry is a nuisance, Prof Kigozi encouraged those with talent (….and I join her to emphasize, ‘...with talent’), like her own son Navio, to cash in on the various talents they have. Warning that this particular sector is talent based, she called on those who can’t do mainstream entertainment to reap from entertainment support services such as  events management, equipment hire, video and audio production, to mention a few. 

Agriculture was also cited as an area with potential with a call for the young generation to think towards mechanization and value addition. Uganda is blessed with good climate and fertile soils and these, according to her, should not go to waste. There was mention of the vast opportunities in livestock farming, fisheries, and forestry, where she expressed concern about the massive deforestation going on in the country today, and wondered what would be left for future generations. 

Following this was a presentation on the various barriers and hindrances to investment and entrepreneurship such as poor infrastructure, bureaucratic registration procedures, with ideas on how to overcome such obstacles.

While presenting the opportunities in the energy sector, focus was placed on the recently discovered oil and gas which are bound to create jobs and increase business activities in particular areas, where entrepreneurs should rush to provide goods and services. Regretting the lack of local investors to exploit Uganda’s vast minerals, she called upon the youth to look back at this sector when they have amassed reasonable capital.

While responding to questions put forward by the audience, advised against the #Tusabagov’tetuyambe, i.e. waiting on the government for all kinds of assistance. Loans are available, but the few thousands that will be lucky enough to benefit from them are nothing compared to the millions in need of financing. She therefore asked those in attendance to look for other forms of financing such as soft loans from friends and family, but with caution and honesty. Still on financing, she advised budding entrepreneurs to maintain a positive credit record , as a tainted record will always come back to haunt those who default on credit capital. 

She called on the youth to shun extravagance in their lives by opting to invest the money they would have used to fund luxurious graduation and wedding parties. There were also calls for aspiring entrepreneurs to make use of available information resources and guidance from government agencies and organizations such as Uganda Investment Authority (which she said, now has a fully-fledged SME department), Enterprise Uganda, Skilling Uganda,

In all, it was a well-organized event and at the end of it, the audience was invited to participate in different entrepreneurship competitions such the Anzisha Prize as they munched on light snacks and interacted with one another. I am looking forward to the next meet where youthful, like-minded individuals will get together to discuss, not politics, unemployment or gossip, but entrepreneurship and investment!