The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Lugogo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Experts at the Tulime, Tulunde, Tufune Agro Expo have warned local farmers against using crop proceeds to fund personal and domestic emergencies, citing poor cash management as a primary driver of agribusiness failures across Uganda.
The warning was delivered during a financial literacy session at an agricultural exhibition held at the UMA Showgrounds in Lugogo that ended July 25th. The event, organized by Sanyuka TV under its flagship economic empowerment initiative, drew hundreds of smallholder farmers, innovators, and commercial exhibitors looking to scale up their agricultural ventures.
Addressing a packed auditorium of agro-entrepreneurs, Philip Kiryowa, a financial literacy trainer at Equity Bank Uganda, revealed that many farmers collapse under debt not due to poor yields, but because of an inability to separate corporate capital from family budgets. Kiryowa emphasized that strict financial discipline remains the single most vital component of long-term commercial survival.
“You cannot run a sustainable enterprise if your pocket is both the farm’s cash register and your household bank account,” Kiryowa told the audience. He urged farmers to aggressively draw a line between personal funds and business funds, establishing strict salary structures for themselves rather than treating gross farm revenue as disposable personal profit.
The central bank and private sector aggregators have previously pointed to a severe financial literacy gap that locks out small-scale agriculturalists from traditional banking credit.
While speaking at the Tulime, Tulinde, Tuzimbe Agro Expo, Philip Kiryowa, Financial Literacy Trainer at Equity Bank Uganda, urged farmers to build stronger financial discipline by separating personal money from business funds and developing practical budgets.
He emphasized that… pic.twitter.com/FuELEZAhcr
— Equity Bank Uganda (@UgEquityBank) July 27, 2026
To solve this, Equity Bank’s training segment focused heavily on teaching attendees how to build practical, adaptive budgets that account for seasonal price fluctuations, weather shocks, and overhead operational costs.
According to Kiryowa, accurate bookkeeping and consistent budgeting do more than just stabilize daily operations; they serve as the foundational baseline required to unlock institutional financial support.
The expo featured a diverse array of stakeholders showcasing innovative solutions, ranging from urban organic waste processors to commercial crop aggregators. Financial institutions like Equity Bank have stationed localized training officers nationwide to continuously offer these business management and record-keeping workshops to cooperative unions and individual farmers free of charge.
