Prime
Uganda’s startup scene: How Institute is shaping new enterprises
Olive Kigongo, the proprietor of Amagara Skincare, displays one of the products made by the company. Below: An assortment of other products. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI
What you need to know:
Uganda Industrial Research Institute is ranked among organisations in Uganda that are slowly aiding Uganda’s fledgling startup culture. Paul Njuguna explains how the Institute helps entrepreneurs nurture their ideas into full-fledged businesses.
As I paced through the corridors of Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) before meeting Mr George Dokoria, the agency’s communications and marketing manager, I kept pondering how great the idea of having an organisation that could industrialise the country was. But do we sons of the soil take advantage of UIRI?
UIRI does applied research and other activities (such as value addition) that will result in rapid industrialisation of Uganda. Besides that, UIRI also functions as a startup incubator offering both in-house and virtual incubation of startups. Among prominent companies that have been incubated by UIRI are Premier Dairies, the manufacturers and distributors of mega yoghurt and milk and Amagara, the manufacturers of Amagara skin care products. These companies, among others, enjoy relatively cheap co – working spaces, shared services such as Internet, funding connections, marketing through exhibitions both locally and internationally, high – tech machinery as well as technical assistance. UIRI may have all the world class machinery but unless Ugandans understand the basics of value addition, the agency may never achieve its mandate.
Redefining value addition
‘When you talk of value addition, many folks think of it as a complicated term. Value addition is simply the change of form from the primary to the secondary. Take the classic example of the road side sugarcane vendors. What do the guys do? They add value to the sugar-cane by transporting, peeling it and packing it.
Notably, the huge value addition machines are important but that would imply value addition at another level. The problem is most people do not understand the basic facts about value addition. That is why they end up engaging in a personal dialogue of “How can I buy an orange at Shs200 and sell it at Shs300?” Rather than, “How can I buy oranges, make orange juice, and then sell the juice and make better margins?”
By employing the services of a juice blender, the entrepreneur adds value to the oranges and churns out orange juice. As Dokoria puts it, “We just lack the knowledge.”
Fostering entrepreneurial knowledge
In its efforts to enhance entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, UIRI conducts training on basic entrepreneurial and business skills. As Dokoria recalls: “The problem with a lot of the advocacy geared towards SMEs [Small and Medium-sized Enterprises] is that they focus so much on the product and technical knowledge that they fail to allocate room for enlightening budding entrepreneurs on basic business skills, not to mention, marketing their products. As such you have scenarios of the chicken farmer who rears his chicken but whenever he gets visitors, a chicken is slaughtered to entice the guests. If he gets visitors daily for a month, 30 birds or more will be gone. Does the farmer know the implications of how much he or she loses by slaughtering the 30 birds? You can take the West Nile classic example where mango trees are ‘beautiful up’ with ripe colourful mangoes and ‘ugly down’ with rot-ting mangoes on the ground. There are so many farmers with products stuck in their farms without a market. Training in business skills, therefore, enhances budding entrepreneurs in developing sustainable enterprises.
Sparking change makers
The UIRI model is setting pace for innovation and averting a local business norm where the average Ugandan ventures into business just because they overheard how lucrative it is and hence ignoring the basic facts embedded into the success.
“Innovations come from scanning the environment and understanding peoples’ tastes and preferences coupled with a burning desire to create something new. Change making startups will therefore be defined by the environment in which they emerge,” Dokoria notes.
True to his words, Dokoria’s office has a locker full of prototypes from local entrepreneurs. One good example is the Sheldon herbal aftershave. The aftershave is developed from a local plant that is renowned for treating aftershave bumps. The entrepreneur created the aftershave after witnessing the healing properties of the plant that could be tapped, canned and sold as an aftershave in men salons. To spark change makers, UIRI aids upcoming enter-prises with a platform to have their products tested. To spark more change makers coun-trywide, Dokoria notes that UIRI’s capacity needs to be beefed up through the replication of the Kampala facility country wide.
How the government can help
The idea of UIRI having originated from the East African Federation of the 1970 was definitely ingenious. Today, UIRI is ranked among organisations in Uganda that are slowly aiding Uganda’s fledgling startup culture. With more startups being created, there is hope that there is a solution for unemployment and poverty eradication.
UIRI does not advertise its services because the institute would end up overwhelmed. On the flip side, there are so many Ugandans with ideas and prototypes and in dire need of the technical support at UIRI but cannot enjoy them because they are ignorant of the existence of UIRI. Worse still, accommodating all these ideas would require more capacity. The government’s wealth creation schemes have laid a lot of focus on agriculture at grass root levels, part of this focus should be invested directly in startups and UIRI.
Paul Njuguna is a financial and cost accountant.
Email:[email protected]
