Small businesses that you can do in Uganda profitably

by Samuel Kagamba

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Are you thinking of starting a small business in Uganda? Many times people think of doing a side hustle in Uganda to supplement their income or in other cases you have no employment and you want to create employment for yourself. So what small business can you start in Uganda with little capital and you have more chances of success? Here are some things you can do.

Roadside Chapatti making

In Uganda, we call this the “Rolex” business; you make chapattis and sell them along with omelettes or fried eggs. This business doesn’t require a lot of capital to start and requires much less to maintain. With UgX 300,000 you can start this business and it can make you a profit of UgX 20,000 per day. In starting, you might most likely get a place that asks monthly rent of UgX 50,000, in essence requiring UgX 150,000 for the first 3 months; a stall or stand for working that might cost you about 70,000, a frying or roasting pan costing about UgX 20,000, a stove(sigiri) for about UgX 25000, a litre of cooking oil at UgX 7000, 3 cartons of wheat flour at UgX 21000(@7000), tomatoes for UgX 1000 and Onions for UgX 500, Salt for Ugx 500. See, this business usually doesn’t have a lot of regulatory requirements to start and requires less resources to maintain.

Boda Boda Riding

This business is about riding people on your motorcycle to various destinations. All you need is a motorcycle and to know how to ride. If you don’t know how to ride, it’s easy to find someone to teach you, but also remember to read the road traffic rules and acquaint yourself with them. If you don’t have a motorcycle, there are very many around for lease at UgX 10,000 a day. The only money you may need is money to pay for membership at a boda boda stage which almost never exceeds UgX 400,000. With this business, you can make between UgX 20,000 to UgX 40,000 per day.

Regular Market Stall

You can have a stall in a regular market say Kalerwe, Mpererwe, Wandegeya, etc. A lot of these are government owned markets where rent prices are very affordable, mostly between UgX 60,000 to UgX 90,000. These markets have a lot of traffic where most citizens are looking to save a buck on purchases. You can sell anything here, but mostly food items do well. You may need a little capital of about UgX 300,000 to stock up on regular food items like matooke, sweet bananas, tomatoes, onions, cabbages, etc. You can sell these items and bank a profit of UgX 20,000 a day.

Making Breakfast Snacks

You can make breakfast snacks like pancakes, samosas, cassava chips(muwogo), doughnuts(mandazzi), rice balls, name it and sell them to chaps going to school or work in the morning. Ugandans are so used to buying these snacks from the roadside so you can make a simple stall on the roadside and make them. Making a simple stall can cost you like UgX 50,000 and rent could cost you like UgX 50,000 a month. You only need working capital of about 60,0000 and I trust you can make about UgX 15,000 and above per day. Regulatory requirements are also not so tough on this business so it will be easy for you to roll on.

Raw Food Supplier

Get agricultural food items from the farmers in the village, bring them to town and supply the market vendors. These items are really very several that you can choose from for example tomatoes, cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, ovacados, mangoes, pumpkins, watermelons, Greens like Nakati, fresh beans, onions, name it. Just choose one, go the village, source it from the farmers and carry it to town and sell it to the market vendors and you have business. This business does not require too much capital and can be started even with UgX 500,000 capital. Regulatory requirements on this business are also very light. You will only pay a very small fee i.e empooza in these markets every time you bring your goods. This fee is usually very small, averaging about UgX 2000. The most important thing you might have to sort here is just transport, for which on starting, you can always use public transport which is mostly affordable.

Consulting

You can also offer consulting for professional services depending on your training. This works for various fields like Legal services, Project Management, Human Resource Management, Information Technology, etc. To set this one up, just get 2 comrades who are also willing to offer professional services, find an office up on one of those buildings in Kampala where rent is usually cheap, often around UgX 300,000-400,000, pay for 3 months and start advertising your services with an address.

Child Care Services

You can take care of people’s babies or kids as they go to work during the day or as they go out to party at night. People can pay you for this well. All you need is a good place to keep them, with enough toys to keep them busy as their parents are away. To start this business, you can start from the very place you’re staying and tell your friends and neighbours that you can offer the service. In Kampala, daily charges per child can from UgX 3000 per day to UgX 10,000.

Care for people’s compounds

This involves everything from lawn mowing to trimming compound shrubs. Grass in people’s compounds always grows like hair on a person’s head, it just never stops. If you can do a good job with this, you are likely to keep a customer for even abnormally too long. Your clients will pay you well for this business. You can start this business with a lawn mower machine which can cost anywhere between UGX 350,000 to 700,000 for a good used one. And of course you will need the big scissors.

You can actually find survival with a small business in Uganda without requiring a fortune to start and maintain. All you need is just to be willing to work. You can always build a bigger business later either by expanding on your model so that you gain scale or change the model all together.

In case you need to get a loan to push you forward, feel free to reach out to us for assistance direct on our phone number +256 760082017. You may even check out our loan products to see what could suit you .We also provide guidance on how to safely transfer money between Uganda and other countries.