In Kampala, the sun rises over the lush green hills, bathing the city in a soft light. In a downtown café, a young man in a suit opens his laptop, ready to present his startup to a Kenyan investor. His name is Brian, he is 26 years old, and he is not alone. Every morning, hundreds of young Ugandans like him embark on entrepreneurial ventures, transforming their country into a true laboratory of innovation. Uganda, long discreet on the African economic stage, is reinventing itself. And everyone is starting to take notice.
A hotbed of bubbling youth
Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world: more than 77% of its inhabitants are under 30. This youth, faced with high unemployment, is no longer content to wait for opportunities. It creates them.
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“We don’t have the luxury of waiting for the government to give us work. We have to invent our own future,” says Fiona Nabisere, founder of SheSells, an e-commerce platform dedicated to artisanal products made by rural women.
In 2023, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor ranked Uganda among the countries with the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in Africa, with nearly 28% of the adult population involved in a startup or already operational business. An impressive figure, which surpasses even that of economic powerhouses such as Nigeria or South Africa.
A culture of resourcefulness turned engine
Resilience is a word that comes up often when talking about Ugandans. In the absence of a solid social safety net, citizens have learned to fend for themselves, to innovate with little. This mindset has given rise to a unique entrepreneurial culture, built on adaptation and creativity.
In the streets of Kampala, tin kiosks sell mobile applications, delivery services, or solar energy solutions. In Gulu, in the north of the country, former child soldiers turned agripreneurs are developing connected smart farms.
“Innovation here is a matter of survival,” explains David Okello, director of a local incubator. “Young people are not trying to create the next unicorn. They want to solve concrete problems: access to water, electricity, education. And often, they succeed.”
Technology hubs in full effervescence
For a decade, Uganda has seen technology hubs flourish in its main cities. Hive Colab, Outbox, Innovation Village… These coworking and incubation spaces welcome hundreds of startups each year in the sectors of fintech, agritech, and digital health.
The government, despite its shortcomings, has begun to support these initiatives. In 2020, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology launched the National ICT Innovation Hub, a centre dedicated to promoting local startups.
“The ecosystem is still young, but it is very dynamic,” says Grace Nakimera, manager at Outbox. “We are seeing more and more foreign investors taking an interest in what is happening here. Uganda is becoming fertile ground for inclusive innovation.”
In 2022, Ugandan startups raised more than 30 million dollars in venture capital, a record for the country. And this is only the beginning.
A diaspora investing in the future
Another key factor in Uganda’s entrepreneurial dynamism lies in its diaspora. Based in London, Toronto, or Dubai, thousands of Ugandans abroad invest in local projects, bringing capital, skills, and networks.
“I left Kampala ten years ago to study in Boston. Today, I’m coming back to launch a plastic recycling company,” says Moses Kaggwa, who invested 150,000 dollars in his project to transform waste into building materials.
According to the World Bank, the Ugandan diaspora sent more than 1.2 billion dollars in remittances in 2023, a sum that fuels not only consumption, but increasingly productive investment as well.
Platforms such as RemitFund or DiasporaConnect now facilitate connections between diaspora investors and local entrepreneurs, creating a vital bridge between the outside world and the country’s interior.
Women at the heart of the transformation
In this bubbling entrepreneurial landscape, women play a central role. Uganda is among the African countries with one of the highest rates of women entrepreneurs: nearly 40% of businesses are led by women, according to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs report.
“Being a woman and an entrepreneur in Uganda is a daily challenge. But it is also a source of pride,” confides Sarah Mutesi, founder of a biocosmetics company based on local plants. “We are showing that change can come from us.”
Programmes such as Women in Tech or the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Program offer mentoring, funding, and visibility to these entrepreneurs, who are transforming rural and urban communities through high social impact projects.
A future hanging on crucial choices
Despite this momentum, Uganda still faces many challenges: failing infrastructure, limited access to credit, political instability. Freedom of expression, essential to innovation, is sometimes undermined. And corruption still hampers many initiatives.
But the energy that drives Uganda’s youth seems inexhaustible. It pushes, it invents, it transforms. Behind every mobile application, every urban farm, every online shop, there is a story of resilience, courage, and hope.
“This country may not yet have everything, but it has what it takes to succeed: ideas, dreams, and people ready to fight to make them a reality,” says Brian, closing his laptop with a smile.
As Africa searches for its future innovation giants, Uganda could well be one of them. The question is: will it be able to seize this opportunity before it slips away?
To go further on innovation in Africa
This subject gains in value when linked to economic indicators, capitals, professions and business opportunities on the continent.
