The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | When 23-year-old Kenneth Galiwango put together Shs13 million to invest in agriculture and a fledgling online media outlet, he was not just starting two small businesses. He was quietly making a statement about youth ambition, self-belief and what is possible beyond government- supported programmes aimed at fighting unemployment and poverty.
At a time when the state’s flagship prosperity initiatives such as the Parish Development Model and earlier youth livelihood programmes have typically disbursed about Shs5 million to organised groups, Galiwango’s personal investment stands at more than double what government has often committed per enterprise.
His capital, mobilised gradually from years of trial, loss and reinvention, reflects a growing cohort of young Ugandans choosing to build from within rather than wait for formal support.
A country of entrepreneurs, and failures
Uganda is frequently described as one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world. The 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report ranked the country highly in early-stage entrepreneurial activity, yet it also painted a sobering picture: for every new business opened, another one closes.
This high failure rate has been linked to poor management skills, limited access to finance, high operating costs, weak record-keeping and inadequate understanding of markets.
Galiwango’s story unfolds squarely within this national reality. His ventures are small by conventional standards, but they reflect the persistence and adaptability often missing in enterprises that collapse early. Rather than chasing rapid growth, he has built slowly, absorbing lessons from failure and reinvesting what little he earns.
From backyard farming to ownership
Born and raised in Mpererwe, a densely populated suburb of Kampala, Galiwango’s entrepreneurial instincts surfaced early. At 11, he began growing vegetables for sale, learning first-hand the value of labour and patience. A year later, his parents bought him two goats, which he reared diligently after school. By 2016, he had expanded into poultry farming, only to lose his entire stock to theft a year later.
That loss could have marked the end of his business ambitions. Instead, it became a turning point. “It hurt, but it taught me that business is risk,” he recalls. The lesson would shape his approach to future ventures, including how he manages costs, protects assets and plans for uncertainty.
In 2019, he channelled his modest savings into Santa Barbershop, a small enterprise that doubled as a social space for young people. The barbershop gave him steady income and, more importantly, exposure to conversations about politics, music, jobs and opportunity. It was also where he began to reconnect with a childhood fascination: storytelling.
Covid-19 and reinvention
The Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 shut down the barbershop and wiped out his daily income. For many young business owners, that period marked permanent closure. For Galiwango, it became a forced pause and a moment of reflection. With time on his hands and a smartphone as his main tool, he began exploring digital media and online publishing.
In February 2025, he launched Santa Media Uganda, an online platform focused on news, entertainment, lifestyle and youth-centred content. The platform operates in a crowded digital space dominated by established media houses and constrained by low advertising revenue and uneven internet access. Still, Galiwango believes there is room for smaller players who understand local audiences.
“We cannot compete on size, but we can compete on relevance,” he says. His content strategy focuses on short, visual and easily shareable stories, tailored to young readers who consume news primarily through phones.
Private effort meets public policy
Galiwango’s journey intersects with national debates on youth empowerment and wealth creation. President Yoweri Museveni’s Parish Development Model was designed to move households from subsistence to the money economy by injecting capital at the grassroots. Earlier initiatives such as the Youth Livelihood Programme pursued similar goals, though with mixed results.
What distinguishes Galiwango’s case is not just the size of his Shs13 million investment, but its source. Unlike public funds channelled through groups, his capital has been accumulated privately, reinvested repeatedly and spread across two sectors, agriculture and media. It is a model rooted in discipline and long-term thinking rather than one-off injections.
Economists have often argued that government programmes work best when they complement, rather than substitute, individual initiative. Galiwango’s businesses illustrate how personal capital, however small, can anchor sustainability if paired with skills and resilience.
Balancing survival and ambition
Today, Galiwango splits his time between managing agricultural activities, running the barbershop and overseeing Santa Media. The workdays are long, the margins thin, and the risks constant. Yet his enterprises are alive, learning and evolving, a rarity in a landscape where many small businesses fold within their first two years.
His educational path, marked by school changes and Covid-related disruption, mirrors that of many Ugandan youths who persist despite instability. “You learn to adapt,” he says, a principle that runs through both his life and business decisions.
As Uganda searches for answers to youth unemployment and enterprise failure, stories like Galiwango’s offer a grounded perspective. They show that prosperity is not only a matter of policy design or funding size, but of mindset, patience and the willingness to start small and stay the course.
From a modest barbershop in Mpererwe to a growing digital platform and agricultural venture, Galiwango is not yet wealthy. But in a country where many enterprises never reach their second birthday, survival itself is a form of success, and ambition, when sustained, becomes capital of its own.
