{UAH} One Thousand Shilling Economy Daily

Dan Bwanika

When I came to this country, I never planned to stay, I wanted to go home after the war and continue with my property development. On the connections I had here I wanted to create a chicken farm. To make it a viable investment I needed to produce at minimum 50,000 eggs a day. Do you know why we scraped that plan? We simply had no market in Uganda to use those numbers of eggs a day. The moment you leave the urban centers, there is no one that can manage to eat an egg for breakfast in Luwube, Busula let alone Kikuba Mutwe. Many Ugandans that create plans of investing into that country stop those plans for the population does not have a buying power.

Until when we create a buying power in the country, all talk of investment into the country is only urban based and the centers can only take that much.

One of the ways to create that base, is to stop making the very same mistakes we have done every day. My father wanted to take a secondary line of income in addition to coffee growing, he grew Tomatoes, and his market was Nakasero. Think this through, a man grows Tomatoes in Luwero district and takes them through to Nakasero, why can't he sell them between Luwero and Kampala? It did not have the buying power then as today. But those Tomatoes were rotting in Nakasero for the market would not sell all Tomatoes coming in daily from all farmers. The solution we needed at that time, was to create a small scale industry in Luwero, process my father's tomatoes into Ketchup. We did not take that step which failed the farmer with ready fruits, and it failed the population from getting the jobs to get a buying power.

2019 Dan Bwanika is in Uganda, and he is still doing the very same mistake we did when I was still in a primary school, he is growing passion fruits to sell as fruits than processed final product. Like my father, Bwanika is going to send all his passion fruits to Nakasero, sell some and some will get rotten. Uganda passion fruits come to Toronto, as a fruit and not as a final product. They stay for a couple of days and they die out. Many Uganda fruits originated in India, The Jack fruit we eat in Uganda is exactly the very same Fene they eat in India, why am I able in Toronto to buy the Fene out of India caned, and the one in Uganda never canned?

It makes my head spin why we are so stuck on selling fresh fruits than processing them, Uganda heads are so backwards that they used to send Matooke here with boxes tied with sisals, they stopped to use sisals for I threatened them with a complaint to the ministry. By the way do you know why they tie those boxes? Because the quality of the box is bad. Good quality boxes lock up manually. A box of Matooke from Brazil has more weight than the box out of Uganda, why do their boxes self-lock? Quality of the box.

Dan Bwanika is still sitting with the same problem my father dealt with in the 60's, farmers grow the fruits, and deliver them to Kampala where they rot as they did in the 60's. Why is it so hard to change the system so that we solve that one problem? The people that are investing into the country today want quick bucks, so they go to Kyaggwe and buy pineapples, ship them out fresh and run with the money through towns and towns of un employed people, that cannot buy the same pineapples. It happens every day and at every sector.

Small scale industries are very easy to install and they are cheap, Years ago I studied making charcoal briquettes out of Uganda garbage, at a time we had coffee husks and banana pills that are full of fuel deposits. To buy a small machine that can make the charcoal briquette, I think the quote started anywhere under 300 dollars. If you spend 1500 dollars in Germany you get a very fancy machine CIF Kampala. Think about all the banana pills we simply throw out to the garbage system, when it is worth the money, did you know that ebisanja is actually fuel? Think about the amounts of coffee husks Uganda was producing every day, just how much tonnage of charcoal briquettes would one produce in that country in only one sitting? Ebisagazi is fuel. Today we have lost the coffee plant, and Matoke is on way out.

Did you know that all full pit latrines in Uganda is stored fuel? Pump it out and make charcoal briquettes out of it, all that is sitting revenue.

If Ugandans do not buy your charcoal briquettes sell them to the Arab countries, do you think Arabs will buy their charcoal out of Canada than Uganda that is close? 80% of Uganda garbage is fuel, doesn't it make sense reinvesting it than struggling with garbage disposal? And that is only one sector I have decided to attack tonight.

We need to give our heads some serious shake.

EM -> { Trump for 2020 }
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"

-----Original Message-----
From: ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com [mailto:ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Dan Bwanika
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 3:19 AM
To: ugandans-at-heart <ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {UAH} One Thousand Shilling Economy Daily

Change the narrative from cash cropping to cash innovations

Very few people buy food in this country!

One time a friend told me of a strategy to earn ten million shillings
(10 M) in three month. He has a good chunk of land in Zirobwe Luweero.
He planted 10000 cabbages expecting to sell them at 1000 shilling each.

At harvest time everyone was harvesting.

I personally planted acres of passion fruits- that gave me a bumper crop. By planting time, a sack went for between UGX 170000 shs to between UGX 210000 shs. At harvest time, the price had reduced to UGX
60000 – UGX 70000 shs

When you wake up at 4.00 a.m. virtually all over this country- particularly in urban centres what one see are droves of women carrying basketful of agro-produce. Likewise start from 3.00 a.m. and evening hours hundreds from lorries are arriving to urban centres others are living urban centres with their cargo to look for food markets.

The saddest moment is when tomatoes, pineapples and mango farmers come to market. There will never be enough customers – the fruits just rot away.

I have therefore dismissed agriculture as a solution to Uganda's poverty unless people involved in it are reduced to 30% of the population to feed the 70% - then it can work.

Some years ago the whole of Nakaseke planted maize on loaned funds – the price was UGX 600 -700 a kilo,. By harvest time the prices had plummeted to UGX 100 -150 shillings and they had to pay back. Milk is now over produced in Uganda, to such an extent the government has tried all it could to ban milk vending. It has not worked but prices continue to go down!

If the state comes in and buy the produce that can change reality but NRM is not in the least bit interested. Foods and Beverages is also dead.

How can Uganda save its people from low incomes?

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ugandans-at-heart/CAKm4MWpw-XJVx7KZombhGqVRgB5hBFAMW4xnW0uShPiP7A%3D2xA%40mail.gmail.com.

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ugandans-at-heart/04a701d569f2%24c6795460%24536bfd20%24%40look.ca.