Double Your Money with Senior Citizen Aga Sekalala

Senior Citizen Aga Sekalala Senior is one of the most successful businessmen in the country with decades of experience in agro-business. His vast business empire, whose flagship brand is Ugachick, employs thousands of people directly and indirectly. Amidst all this, Sekalala has always remained elusive in his book, Double Your Money, provides a reflection into what makes him successful

What Sekalala Snr says in his book revolves chiefly around the key points that survival happens regardless of your circumstances. To quote what he quoted from South African poet Denis Brutus, “somehow we survive and tenderness, frustrated, does not wither…”

To a huge extent, divine providence is something that cannot easily be explained and somehow occurs when you really do need a break to happen for you. Also, doing business with trust and honesty will always work out in your favour.

Sekalala Snr started out working with his father in a makeshift coffee processing company that they would engage in at home. At that time (1950s), business was a preserve of the Indian community in Uganda. He learnt from his dad processing, packaging, transportation and logistics, business development and above all, how to persevere in life.

He used that perseverance to find his way to school in Wandegeya Islamic School for primary school all the way to England, UK to wrap up his A-level and also do a Diploma in Journalism at the London School of Journalism. To further his ambition, Sekalala Snr completed an Advanced Diploma in Journalism focusing on TV production at the London School of TV Production and even managed to get assistance from the then Government of Uganda to have his tuition paid and it came along with a much-needed stipend.

His first role after living in the UK for five years was working at Uganda Television (UTV back then), now known as Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC). He then worked at the Buganda Government as an information officer before the Amin war of the 1970s caused enough trouble.

He found himself working for Management Training and Advisory Centre (MTAC) to help build Ugandan’s capacity to start and do business. Working as an Information and Documentation Officer, he and his team created a radio show that ran on Radio Uganda aptly named Double Your Money. It was created as an edutainment segment to help promote business to be done by Ugandans across the country.

In today’s Uganda, very many Ugandans have tried to do business of some sort. Importation, trade, money lending, construction, services too like salons, consulting, and with the birth of the internet, tonnes of technology enthusiasts now earn from their skills as businesspeople. Uganda being an agricultural based economy, however, does not seem to have as many willing entrants into the agri-business space.

The last one came about when Sekalala Snr purchased slightly over one square mile from a trio of professors in the early 1970s. They purported to be running a farm (of that size) and only used to turn up on the weekend.

When the agreement was signed, Sekalala Snr moved to the land and built his home there and proceeded to try different ventures on the expansive piece of land including sugarcane and jaggery, engineering, vanilla, fish farming, fish feeds, chicken hatchery and chicken feeds and now chicken itself. Even amidst the turmoil of the wars between 1979 and 1986, hope lived on for Sekalala Snr.

Sekalala Snr in this book shares many trials and failures and perseveres to a great extent due to his willingness to push the invisible limits set for us and seek out beneficial partnerships for both parties.

Sekalala emphasizes six business keys

▪ Transition is always happening and learning to accept it and more importantly deal with it in a positive manner will take you far.

▪ Banks are amazing business partners if you maintain a certain amount of honesty in whatever situations are going on.

▪ Cash rules everything.

▪ Business and politics cannot be good bedfellows.

▪ Diversification is a must. Anything can happen.

▪ Being in business means being present.

Quotable quotes from the book

“Opportunities are many, but they only emerge when you exercise some initiative, that intuitive sixth sense that a businessman ought to have.”

“The job you do most times becomes an extension of your personal life. Some business cultures start to define the man or woman that is part of them.”

“One of the biggest hindrances to growth in our (developing) countries is that the average person makes many losses – on seemingly small things. These aggregate losses of ordinary individuals stall collective national development.”

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