Summary At COP28, Mzee Mashurubu reveals a unique perspective—Sepoo, an indigenous delegate, claims Umlimo’s approval for the Grande Inga Dam, a salvation effort for Earth’s endangered lung, the Congo Forest. Dr. Luganzu, CEO of Afrika Okapi, shares a USD 97 BN blueprint for the dam, generating 87 GW of hydroelectricity. The project by Hughes Harness […]
·”It’s not merely the abundance of attractions but the excellence of our ancillary services that matter. Consider the Pissing Man in Brussels, which draws 3 million tourists annually; we can aspire to achieve the same.” – Matsiko Kahunga ‘Hands-up here, if outside your gate, you can walk 200 metres barefoot…or even 500…let’s discount the outliers. […]
‘…Byarugaba Ayota looked at Uganda the way a farmer looks at his garden…he tended it, watered it, enriched it with fertiliser and let others enjoy its fruits’… This is Mzee BSN at his witty self. Tickled by the latest skit from NSSF, namely the Seven-Hills run in aid of disadvantaged pupils in Kampala’s public schools. […]
“By adopting a developmental approach, microfinance can serve as a driving force for inclusive growth, generating sustainable livelihoods and breaking down barriers to economic progress.” Kahunga Matsiko PRO DEO ET ECCLESIA ET PATRIA …hey, we got a 98% loan repayment and an 18% return on investment… …hey, we have reached the poorest of the poor… […]
“UCDA should transform from an authority into a profit-driven value-chain manager in a public-private partnership with global coffee giants like Nestlé.” “Import substitution manufacturing is key to creating a productive, rich middle-class Uganda that will drink coffee.” Coincidence perhaps. We had been musing over Mzee Mashurubu’ s Lockdown Exam questions. One such piercing question stated […]
It is possible to reduce informality in Uganda’s human capital. ‘…even these high-level economists are telling us lower high school economics…things we should have graduated from ages ago…informality is very easy to manage…shouldn’t be a subject of this level of national economy debate.’ Mzee BSN was taken aback by the findings of the Poverty Status […]
The family business question in Uganda …since 1853 (Levi Strauss)…since 1759 (Guinness)…since 1906 (KIWI)… since 1986 (Hotloaf). You have read these and others. Anything special about this word ‘Since’? It communicates one key message: the resilience of these companies, virtually all of which were started as family businesses, as evidenced in brands like Guinness, Nestlé, […]
Yes, it is possible for development to trigger wealth. ‘… yes, it is possible for development to trigger wealth. Development in infrastructure alone, with no household income, will not create wealth… will have no impact… President Museveni can pick a leaf from our president… take the narrow path… and all households in Uganda will have […]
SMEs are Businesses and not charities Prominent Industrialist, the late Dr. James Mulwana (Rest in Peace) was once quoted by the media, calling on government to force foreign companies to support SMEs, for the latter to overcome the many challenges they face, especially competition against foreign big companies. Whereas they do need support, SMEs are […]
YES, UGANDA CAN RECEIVE 4 MILLION TOURISTS A YEAR For starters, we at Gantone (Greater Ankole Tourism Network), the tourism cluster for the Ankole region do raise our thumbs up to the immediate past CEO and Deputy CEO at Uganda Tourism Board (https://www.exploreuganda.com/), Steven Asiimwe and John Ssempebwa respectively. They set the sector on a […]
MAKERERE@100 IN UGANDA@60: Innovation into commercialization ‘…well, we will not dwell much about the first forty years, since at the time Makerere was an affiliate college… Makerere’s prime was when it was a constituent college of the University of East Africa. Those were our days, the reason we had wakina Julius Nyerere and Benjamin Mkapa, Anyang’ […]
One fact to be remembered about Mr. Ngoma Ngime when he served as RDC in Mbarara, was the learning and familiarisation tours he organized regularly for district leaders. At the end of one such tour, during a cock tail at the Uganda High Commissioner’s residence in Nairobi, he lamented why Ugandan farmers cannot adopt the […]
OIL COMPENSATIONS: LESSONS FROM MFALME AND BYAMAKA The experts and policymakers in our oil sector may want to pay a study trip to a minuscule humble remote village called Kanyeganyegye. The story rife in this village today is about two ba-falme. Mfalme in ordinary Kiswahili means king. In this village, it is a popular slang […]
‘…. you guys, munaweza mkahatarisha uchumi wenu bila kujua… This thing needs a cautious approach…you need a Maryhill Consensus …an airline is more than a business…. you recall Air Zaïre…it had been labelled ‘Air Peut-être …Air Perhaps’… in marketing, perception is reality… and this has implications to the health of an economy…more so in such […]
He savours those moments. This is his pass-time, ever since he retired from a high-flying corporate life among multinationals. We thus added BSN to our appellation of him. We call him Mzaai BSN. BSN is Been there…Seen it all…Nothing new…exciting…to prove. His favourite moments are the hours he spends mentoring corporate leaders, with a preferred […]
I must applaud my teachers at Makerere University, Prof. Oswald Ndoleriire and Dr. Sallie Simba Kayunga on their position regarding the sciences hype by government. This was the very same hype that greeted us over 20 years ago as we joined university at the time government scrapped students’ allowances, arguing that the monies saved were […]
‘…perhaps its founders had other thoughts about it…but it has now become a game-changer in our development trajectory. Its impact is seen and felt everywhere …’ The Executive Director at the Sage Fund was concluding his speech at the opening ceremony for Sage Leather Works, a multibillion leather complex in the city industrial park, one […]
It all started with American Presidential aspirant, Donald Trump. ‘This guy is very blunt’, is the spontaneous reaction of my team member as we digest what Trump had just said about Africans, capping it with the vow to deport them from the USA, once he enters Capitol Hill. ‘People who even import match sticks’, he […]
Reviving Uganda’s Textile Sector: We Need a Dose of Gandhism ‘Sir, I have three hundred workers…unemployed. And families to feed…please …’ ‘….I have three hundred million back in India……’ We return to this shortly. The latest from the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives (MTIC) is that Uganda is set to revamp its textile industry, […]
‘…why don’t you have property…at your age…’? It incessantly rang and sounded in her ears as she made the final touches to the preparations for the Grand Day. Yes. Grand Day! This is the simplified label she settled on after a countless list of superlatives to describe the day. A day unlike any other! Was […]
Saturday, April 25, 2026 ‘…you all will agree with me that we each received a quality education, in a decent learning environment, because someone, somewhere, sacrificed…it is now our turn and obligation…the pioneer generations laid the foundation, which made us who we are and what we are. We, therefore, carry an even bigger obligation in […]
One popular saying in the interlacustrine region of East Africa (also known as the Great Lakes), goes thus in one of my Grandmas’ tongues: ow’omutwe muhango, n’obu otariisize, noyonesa, meaning once you are notoriously known for being careless with your flock, and it often destroys neighbours’ crops, even the day your flock is securely tethered […]
“Uganda needs brick and mortar resource-based and light technology industrialisation to create massive jobs that will see us importing manpower in a period of five years or less” Ben Kahunga Matsiko In the case of Uganda, this is how the legislation will create jobs… The latest we have from Parliament, inter alia, is Hon Paul […]
The Parish Development Model Creating Prosperity for Posterity Burama, Isingiro, Friday, July 18, 2025 ‘…our case here, we benchmarked one successful horticultural complex, Nyahururu Industries Ltd, in Kenya. Thanks to the strong links we have with them, our district team plus several leaders at different levels went on learning and benchmarking tour to five […]