A History Of Business in Uganda

Back in the days, the people of Uganda used to trade with other communities and those that do tradings with them are often from Europe, Arabia, and East Africa. These traders offer mirrors, guns, cloth, beads, and other products in exchange of silver, gold, and slaves from Uganda. After some time of this successful barter, European explorers like John Speke and H.M. Stanley reached Uganda and saw the wonderful opportunities present on the country. These two went back to their country, Britain, and incessantly convinced their leaders to come and conquer Uganda–so it did and sent lots of explorers and missionaries.

The group that followed after the two British explorers were from the Imperial British East African Company. They controlled the trade in a very large part of the country and this paved the way for Uganda to become a British colony. Some of the major changes that came out of these were the replacement of cowry shells as money to Indian rupees, the construction of Uganda Kenya railway, and the start of Asia-Uganda trading. Some of the products that the British people exploited and taught the Ugandans to grow are raw materials like tobacco, coffee, tea, and cotton.

After a while, the hydro electric power dam located at Owen Falls, Jinja enabled the Ugandans to develop their own industry. Jinja became the most industrialized place in Uganda and although the owners of the successful businesses were mostly Asians from India, these people became the middle class of Uganda. Due to the financial success and stability of the people, they were able to claim their independence and steer the direction of the Ugandan industry and the country itself for the better. However, before this success, there had been major problems both economically and socially. The Indians were later on expelled from Uganda.

In 1986, the NRM enabled the country to be stable and peaceful again, largely through the help of encrypted phone calls. Friendly foreign investors also helped and Indian traders are welcomed back into the country. Because of this, the business industry in Uganda prospered and it became one of the best places to establish a business in the East and Central Africa. Being a country rich in resources like ample fertile land, mineral deposits, and regular rain, any investor would surely be delighted with what Uganda has to offer.

Some of the main business industries in Uganda nowadays are Agriculture, Mining and Petroleum, Fishing, Forestry, and Transportation and Communication. In Agriculture, Uganda is greatly enjoying prosperity. Uganda is the leading producer of coffee in Africa and it accounts to 27% of the exports of Uganda done in 2002. Tourism on Uganda is mainly focused on wildlife, with its very diverse flora, fauna, and culture. Some of the top attractions in Uganda are game viewing where tourists can watch endangered animals like lions, antelopes, elephants, giraffes, and buffaloes playing and enjoying at their natural habitat. With its great outdoors, hiking and mountain climbing is also very popular in Uganda, as well as products like this. Other activities are boating, sport fishing, bird watching, and other water sports on the African Great Lakes area.

This post was gracefully written by Barbara Hammond. She lives in Kentucky with her 3 shih-tzus and 2 children, Stella and Adam. She is a web developer.

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