Uganda: Learners defy odds with various businesses during and after COVID-19 lockdown

“During COVID-19 lockdown, I was so idle, I started making baskets and craft shoes and selling them in the community, in a day I could make approximately UGX45, 000,” Akao (a form four student) says.

By Christine Awor

Lira, Uganda – June 22, 2022: Venessa Amongi is a 16-year-old Form Two (Senior Two) student of Angelika Secondary school. She sells snacks and bites at school; she supplies them to the students in their various dormitories, and each day, she gets a net profit of UGX15, 000.

This is the business Amongi started during the COVID-19 lockdown.

From March 2020, schools in Uganda were closed and learners were placed into ‘total’ lockdown with the education sector the most affected.

The measures [lockdowns] and others forced all learners to get back home. Many whose parents could not afford online lessons became idle at home, and some started small businesses to keep them busy.

Some learners [those in secondary schools] said they wanted to survive “the situations”. Businesses became the order of the day and most of them started booming.

In January 2022, the government of Uganda officially reopened education institutions for all categories of learners and as they were planning to get back to school, they [some] already had their businesses continuing. Sadly, it became hard to balance books and business, at the same time.

For Venessa, when schools reopened, she continued with it.

“At first I was too afraid to lose my business, I kept contemplating if I should just leave school and focus on my business since I was making UGX50, 000 a day as I could supply to shops around the home,” said Venessa.

The 16-year-old adds that she was also afraid of dropping out so she devised other means of balancing the narratives through a teacher who always helps her with the sales at school.

“I always use the phone booth to call my aunt at home to keep supplying, she makes them and leaves with the gateman every Monday and I advertise during assemblies.

Amongi mostly sells hard corns, cookies, and doughnuts to the students, community around school, and staff and the canteen and makes a profit of UGX 350,000 monthly.

Babra Anek, a teacher in Angelika Secondary school, Barr sub-county in Lira district affirms all necessary support to such students.

“We have a phone booth at school where these students always communicate with the caretakers of their various businesses to monitor progress,” Anek said.

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She added that they always have business recovery talks with the students from time to time since the new lower primary curriculum focuses more on building the life skills of students so that they can excel in one field if they cannot perform better in class.

Rebbeca Akao is a Form Four (Senior Four) student of Buluge Comprehensive School Lira. She comes from a family of five. She narrated her story, of how her business has been running as she continues with her studies with the help of her mother.

“During COVID-19 lockdown, I was so idle, I started making baskets and craft shoes and selling them in the community, in a day I could make approximately UGX45, 000.”

Akao does not regret starting a business because it has helped her to be economical in planning and management.

Her mother is very supportive in a way that she started also investing in the same business.

Life hasn’t been easy for them but because of selling baskets and shoes she made, they have managed to push through with a lot of ease.

Each basket, she told me goes for a total of UGX5000 and a pair of shoes go for UGX12, 000.

Figure 1. Samples of the Baskets Akao sells(Courtesy)

Akao’s mother, Agnes Ajok said she has never at any point stopped her daughter from doing business even though she was skeptical at first.

Daniel Ogwang, a Primary Six pupil of Omito primary school in Lira City started hawking mostly clothes for boys but when he had to return to school, he said he found it somewhat hard to continue with the business. So, he decided to leave the business in the custody of his grandmother and a friend who has a stall for selling clothes, and at the end of the week, he makes a profit of UGX 75,000.

Philomena Amongi, Ogwang’s grandmother says she is very supportive of him because she believes that when a child is empowered early enough, it gives them independence.

Philomena believes that when a child starts being independent, it saves them the burden of being idle and being in bad groups and instills creativity in them

James Ocen, proprietor of Faith SS and Premier Progressive Lira states that they have a total of 10 children in his school known for balancing books so well with various businesses because they have always given career guidance to them and full support.

Ocen added that this is something they cannot avoid because the new lower secondary school curriculum supports that students should be taught life skills so that in case they fail to perform in one field they can excel in the other.

This is because COVID-19 caused a lot of psychological trauma to the students and most of them needed those life skills to support them in case they found a challenge copying up.

Ocen said during PTA meetings, they always advised students to also value having academic documents alongside business so that they can have flourishing skills the whole round.

According to Ocen, the only challenge is that most of them are already very money minded and that made them somehow lose concentration, a case in point is a student from Pader district who came back to school but was earningUGX400, 000 a month.

Isaach Otoa, head teacher of Adyel Primary school says as a school they endeavor too much to talk to parents to support the various businesses the pupils left at home so that their minds don’t get diverted because of stress.

Otoa noted that without a doubt, the world has changed. You cannot survive on concepts alone. I usually tell my students that if they maximize the opportunity at hand and equip themselves with any of the skills available.

This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Christine Awor and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.