Young entrepreneurs in the Kigezi sub-region have been urged to prioritize value addition and strong branding, if their innovations are to evolve into sustainable and competitive businesses.
Davis Akampurira, the Executive Director of Youth Elevation Initiative, made the call while sharing his entrepreneurial journey. Akampurira, who founded the organization in 2020, ventured into coffee value addition in 2025 by launching Bunyonyi coffee as a way to generate income to sustain his initiatives after being laid off by USAID.
He noted that although Uganda has no shortage of innovations, limited focus on value addition and branding continues to weaken the competitiveness of locally made products. According to him, this gap has contributed to the persistent perception that Ugandan products are of inferior quality, emphasizing that branding plays a critical role in shaping consumer confidence.
Based at the Red Cross Building in Mwanjari Ward, Southern Division of Kabale Municipality, Akampurira explained that his decision to invest in coffee value addition was inspired by the challenges young people faced during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, including unemployment and declining livelihoods. He sought practical solutions that could create jobs while tapping into locally available resources.
He observed that despite Kigezi being a major coffee-producing region, much of the coffee is exported in raw form, with little local consumption or processing. This, he said, is partly due to a mindset among many youths and communities that favors imported products over locally produced goods. He believes that adding value to agricultural products such as beans, sorghum, millet, and potatoes could significantly increase incomes and reduce dependence on job hunting.
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To maintain quality, Akampurira sources coffee directly from local farmers, after which it is sorted and transported to Kampala for processing before being sold back in Kabale. He revealed that his entry into the coffee business was also driven by the absence of widely recognized coffee brands from the Kigezi region, despite its strong production capacity.
He emphasized the importance of market research before investing in value addition, noting that his brand was intentionally designed to appeal even to non-coffee drinkers. However, he pointed out that many young people remain excluded from the most profitable segments of the coffee value chain, such as processing, branding, and export.
Akampurira called on government to bridge this gap by equipping young innovators with practical skills in entrepreneurship and value addition, arguing that many university graduates lack the technical expertise needed to succeed in business.
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Since launching Bunyonyi coffee, he says the initiative has created employment opportunities for fellow youth and enhanced their skills in value addition. The product currently retails at UGX 50,000 per kilogram, UGX 25,000 for half a kilogram, and UGX 15,000 for a quarter kilogram.
He also encouraged young people to work collectively in ventures, noting that raising capital individually is often difficult, while group efforts can attract government support more easily.
Despite the progress, Akampurira highlighted several challenges, including limited capital, difficulty in securing reliable markets due to preference for imported goods, maintaining consistent quality, and the time-intensive nature of production.
According to the 2021 National Labour Force Survey by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Uganda’s youth population stood at 9.3 million, representing about 22% of the total population. Of those aged 18 to 30, only 37% were employed, while 41% were neither in employment nor education. The majority of employed youth—about 90%—were engaged in informal work.
Recent 2024 census estimates indicate that youth make up about 22.7% of Uganda’s population and workforce, yet many remain reluctant to participate in agricultural initiatives such as coffee growing, underscoring the need for renewed efforts to make the sector more attractive and profitable.
