In 2011 and 2012 I travelled to Kampala in Uganda to attend the Annual
Entrepreneurship Conference hosted by Makarere Business School one of
Africa’s leading Business Schools. This brief article sums up what I saw and learnt from this great East African nation.
To some Uganda is known as the land where Idi Amin reigned terror when
he ruled the nation with an iron fist in the 1970s till he was toppled
by Tanzanian soldiers under the late Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere.
Others know Uganda as the land of Lake Victoria and River Nile (known
from biblical times). To others it is known for the famous Makerere
University (www.mak.ac.ug)
which at one time was one of Africa's leading universities, a position
it is steadily reclaiming. Uganda is also known by some as a land of
exciting tourism with its gorillas in the thick forests. Yet to others
Uganda is known as a land of high entrepreneurial activity. It is
related to this aspect that I travelled to Kampala in Uganda in December
2011 to attend the 8th Annual Entrepreneurship Conference hosted by
Makerere University Business School.
Getting to Kampala
I
travelled to Kampala using Kenya Airways from Nairobi having travelled
to Nairobi earlier in the day from Lusaka. The flight was smooth
and the in-flight service very good. The flight from Lusaka to Nairobi
took 2 and a half hours while from Nairobi to Kampala it took 1 hour.
Kampala
Mutesa I , the Kabaka (king) of Buganda , had chosen the area that was
to become Kampala as one of his favorite hunting grounds. The area
was made up of hills and wetlands . It was an ideal breeding ground
for various game, particularly a species of antelope, the impala
(Aepyceros melampus). When the British arrived in the area they called
one of the hills 'The Hill of the Impala' due to he large presence of
impala. The native Baganda used this reference in their local dialect
(Luganda) - 'Akasozi K'empala. K'empala formally became 'Kampala' with
repeated usage, and when the British colonial rulers needed a name for
the city they adopted this reference (Wikipedia, 2012).
Staying in Kampala
I stayed in Kampala for 6 days at Hotel Excellent in the heart of the
city centre. I booked the hotel online and it proved to be a
worthy accommodation venue with hot shower, study desk and wireless
Internet. The hotel was very close to shops, restaurants and a
market. Kampala is a very busy city and has its fair share of traffic
jams. Getting round from place to place using motor vehicles is quite a
challenge. As such motorbikes, locally known as boda-boda prove to be a
much more reliable means (not necessarily much safer) of transport. On a
few times, I was forced to use them to easily get from one place to
another! I would hold very tightly to the bike rider for dear life!
Entrepreneurship Conference
The highlight of the Conference to me was listening to a presentation
by Benedicta Nabingi who produces products from drinking straws
such as bags, folders, belts and so on. More information is available
from: http://www.strawbags.org/.
Another highlight was a presentation by Ms. Maria Odido an
entrepreneur in bee keeping industry. Through her hard work and
determination she has grown to have Ms. Odido honey business has 70%
market share in Uganda and 6% market share in Kenya. Factory employees
in the Bee Natural company were mainly women (70%) who came from a low
educational background). The major products were honey, beeswax and
propolis. More information about the Bee Natural business can be
obtained from: http://www.beenaturalproducts.com/.
During the Conference I also valued the advice of Professor Peter Rosa,
specialist in Family Businesses of University of Edinburgh Business School who advised
participants to hold Entrepreneurship Education Conferences to
share best practices on how to best teach Entrepreneurship.
Sightseeing in Uganda
Uganda has a lot to offer to the adventurous and discerning tourist
with a bias to sightseeing. One of the places I made sure I
visited was Makerere University, the Ivory tower of knowledge. I met my
classmates from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, Dorothy,
David and Julius. They gave me a tour of some places of interest at the
University. I also visited Makarere University Business School with
about 12,000 students. On Friday, our hosts organised had an excursion
to Jinja, where the source ofthe river Nile is. On the way we bought
some well grilled chicken. Seeing the source of the river Nile was a wow
experience. Words cannot fully describe the feeling. We were shown
where Lake Victoria and the river Nile meet. One interesting feature we
als learnt about while on river Nile is of a bird species that eats 2kg
of fish daily.
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