To many young Ugandans, being a student at Makerere University means leaving the good life; parties, movies and such. A life of hustling on a daily basis is supposed to be far from the picture.
However, one student, despite coming from a fairly well-to-do background, decided he would banish his pride and start a business to sustain him and save him from having to survive on handouts from his parents or the university allowances. Sansio Bagambe is his name.
When the president closed Makerere University on November 1 last year, some students celebrated yet another unforeseen holiday. But for Bagambe, it felt like a challenge to him to find something productive to do during that time.
“I didn’t want to keep calling home for money yet I am already mature enough. I didn’t have the money to start, but I had the idea and that’s how I started,” Bagambe recalled.
Bagambe, who is waiting to graduate in January, is a Telecom Engineering finalist.
To start his business, which is located in Makerere Kikoni, the 24-year-old obtained a loan of Shs300,000.
The first thing he acquired off that money was an electric popcorn machine that cost Shs180,000.
“I then got a friend Joseph Opiding [a classmate] who helped me get a place where we are working from now. We pay Shs40,000 as rent for this place,” he said of his roadside selling point.
Lucrative
According to Bagambe, a good day fetches them between Shs25,000 and Shs30,000 in profits.
“We work from 4pm to midnight, Monday to Monday and we love it,” he boasted.
On good days, Bagambe revealed, they can achieve sales close to Shs300,000 especially when they are selling popcorn at special events.
He recalled the day when Lumumba Hall held the Lumubox carnival and they were allowed to operate. At the end of that day, they bagged Shs200,000 in sales.
“On a monthly basis, the least amount of money we can get is Shs 700,000,” he said.
Challenges
Despite business being largely kind to him and his business partner, Bagambe said that because they use electricity, the coil in their machine gets damaged every after two weeks.
Additionally, the customers, he said, are hard to satisfy, complaining about the small quantities of popcorns they pack yet, Bagambe pointed out, the cost of production is increasing.
Classmates’ popcorn supplier
Being in an student environment, Bagambe had initially worried that his classmates would look down upon him because of engaging in this type of blue collar job, but this was never the case.
“Because we would have discussions in the evening, one of us would even take some packed popcorn to them and they would buy in large quantities. They really supported me.”
A star student who came top of Kicwamba in his O’Level, Bagambe told us he intends to own at least five popcorn machines by the end of next year popcorns, strategically located in busy places like Kamwokya and Wandegeya among others so that he can fetch even more income, and realise an even bigger dreaming of owning a “mega” restaurant.