Kiiza Thomas is a fourth year university student at the International University of East Africa (IUEA) pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Petroleum Engineering who has achieved much out of selling peeled matooke and irish potatoes.
As a result of lack of enough funds by his parents to pay for his tuition plus his older siblings, the 24 year old decided to create a small business that could sustain his life and keep him in campus. At the beginning of this year, with support of his friends from Sheema district where he comes from, he decided to start up the business of selling peeled matooke mostly to students around campus.
“It was really hard, given that my father had retired and gone back to the village and my mother is a primary school teacher. She couldn’t raise all that money,” Kizza said.
He started selling peeled matooke at an affordable price of Shs 1500 each package containing between 9-13 fingers of matooke depending on the size. He branded his business “Ebitookye” which means matooke in his local language. His business has been a success through social media marketing mainly made by his friends he now makes around 50,000 daily.
He has big plans for his business and has dreams of making it sound in the International market reaching Europe, USA, Australia and many more markets. He also urges his fellow students to use the available opportunities.
You must be logged in to post a comment.