Bushenyi District’s urbanization and industrialization have remained at a slow pace not because it lacks investors/people who are able but it’s because residents have neglected their home area to cause the desired social and economic growth.
Surprisingly those who have not helped the district to ‘grow’ are always part of people who always lament on how Bushenyi’s development has stagnated. They have neglected their home district and contributed towards the development of other districts by investing there.
For Moses Ariho .aka. Kituzi he is not among those who have abandoned Bushenyi and as a result history will judge him right as he narrates why he chose to invest at his home village, Kyabasenene in Kyeizoba Sub County (now Rwentuha town council) to contribute towards Bushenyi district’s growth.
“I have always wanted to do something that benefits many people in the entire community especially my neighbors and also to develop the area (Bushenyi) where I come from,” Moses Ariho says.
“I want to leave a legacy in my village and in my district. I would have established this factory and other businesses in Kampala or other bigger cities, but in areas like Kampala you cannot leave a legacy there because there is that competition and no one knows you,” Ariho who runs a chain of businesses narrates. He is the brain behind Kituzi, a drink which has become a household name across the region. Ariho’s creativity has immensely contributed a lot on Bushenyi’s trend of social and economic growth, in particular, Rwentuha town council.
“I am happy that I have availed our people with employment opportunities. The people of Bushenyi especially those neighboring my factory supply their produce to the factory,” Ariho says adding, “People have constructed hostels/rentals to accommodate my workers hence earning from house rent.”
“A three phase power line, water lines……have been extended to our village just because of this factory.”
How he started
Ariho was a wholesale businessman in Rwentuha town where he had spent about 10 years. He had earlier worked with GBK dairy factory in Mbarara for 3years.
While in wholesale business, he decided to go for further education at UpHill college-Mbuya in Kampala where he did his Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) education training.
“I decided to seek for education to upgrade my level of understanding because there are things I wanted to understand especially English and computer,” Ariho recalls. His parents had supported him to get trained in carpentry and joinery.
Upon acquiring skills especially in computer and English, Ariho embarked on research and during one of his travels to Kampala the first question to research on was; why do whites (bazungu) stay longer?
“I discovered that many of them (whites/bazungu) eat a lot of organic mushroom and that is when I started to research on mushroom and later I discovered that it can be a unique product hence Kituzi juice,” Ariho narrates his journey in business.
In 2016, Ariho looked for professionals in food science and technology and hired them to expand the innovation.
Alongside his wholesale business, he started experiments at a small scale. In 2017, he realized Kituzi was doing well and something he had all along wanted to venture in.
“All along I had wanted to run something that helps a community to get transformed by accessing things like job opportunities unlike the wholesale business which was helping me and my family,” Ariho says.
“I don’t regret the three years that I spent working with Kacuma/GBK in the department of manufacturing because that is where I picked all this inspiration and the ideas,” he narrates. Ariho started manually and purchased some small packing materials from Best Pack in Kampala. He concentrated on developing the product before he ordered for modern machines from India, Dubai and later hit the market.
Ariho is happy that his Kituzi company has grown and now employs many people who later support their families.
Capital
Because his capital was small at the beginning, Ariho did not go into things of constructing structures nor buy land. He instead converted his residential house into a factory and shifted his family to muzigo.
“My mother later authorized me to expand and build the factory,” he says as he appreciates his mother.
“We have now expanded and there is no need of even shifting or establishing a branch since we can process everything from here and we export.
Benefits to the community
Apart from the jobs he has created, Ariho says, “most of the raw materials like; tea leaves, honey, mushrooms, firewood…….are all purchased from Bushenyi people.” “Single handedly, I have changed on the outlook of Bushenyi; Rwentuha town in particular,” he boasts adding that, “there are a lot of health benefits that people get from our product because there are nutritional facts in it.”
Market
Ariho says he is not struggling with market as his product has penetrated the entire East African Community regional markets.
Challenges
He explains that prices for raw materials are increasing and the ever increasing power bills.
Ariho says taxation is the biggest challenge as it doesn’t favor growth of business.
“URA has introduced different taxes like VAT, Local exercise duty, Income tax, Payee, NSSF at ago and we were never consulted,”
“If I was to meet the President Yoweri Museveni, I would tell him to reduce on taxes and instead aim at increasing tax payers in the country so that it reduces instead of having few people and then tax remains a burden to them.”
Ariho says businesses are collapsing and this reduces on the taxes collected and the burden shifts to the few that are struggling.
Ends.
Kituzi has been too influential in the development and the health of not only people from bushenyi but the whole country. Your legacy will remain and you will ever be remembered. Mentor more people and Bushenyi will be at its peak in a few years to come👍