CAMPUS NEWS

Business Around Maguru Fail To Meet Up Uganda Pentecostal University Students’ Wants

Maguru trading center is 350 meters from Uganda Pentecostal University, Mucwa thus it’s a service delivery place for students in terms of hotels, hostels, photocopying and printing, retail shops, market stalls, bars, chapatti vendors among others.

The map below shows the location of Maguru Trading Center and distance from there to the university.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1A_5l8BfVOBmnQgeDbFPVp1Fq3z27sNE&usp=sharing

Goods and services are scarce in Maguru T/C

Besides it being a nearest service delivery place for students, there are some needs students want but they are not offered in Maguru thus making students to move either to Fort Portal city town or other places for the services.

More so, most of the times they are closed or close very early at night. According to Aidat Akiiki a second year journalism student at UPU says she expects clinics for emergencies around Maguru unfortunately they aren’t there.

She continues to say that some girls at campus get impregnated due to failure to get prevention measures like pills and other treatment like infections.

Twinamasiko Darius says in Maguru they lack services of hotels for stance he says only one restaurant is operating of which its prices of food is high thus students from UPU cannot afford to eat from there.

According to Nyakato Susan a student at UPU says rent around Maguru is high whereby she prefer staying in MT some distance away from campus where it is somehow cheap than staying around Maguru regardless of houses their being good and near campus.

However entrepreneurs around Maguru say business don’t operate as it should be their main customers who are the students from the university lack money to buy from them.

Mr. Ivan Ateenyi, a business man in Maguru says that parents don’t have money to give their children so that they can support other business. He says most the thing they are not selling, they sold them before but because of lack of customers from the community they left their business.

Through different interviews, students of UPU would love to see different business service delivery for example chips stalls, juice, fruits, saloon, tailoring machines boutique for both shoes and clothes, saloons, more hotels among others.

A graphic showing different businesses that can be around UPU

According to Ronald Okule, he would love to start small money saving business like a salon around campus or Maguru to ease their financial life while at campus however he has hindrances of capital, no space and high rent.

Linda Priscillah an IT student prefer to start on a juice business to sell during sunny seasons around campus since it is affordable than buying other soft drinks however she cannot meet expenses like electricity that come along with starting a business.

Mugisha sharing tips on why and how he started a small business of snacks at UPU campus

Mugisha Baruku, a student of public administration says he is running a snack business where he sells pancakes samosa, chips, juice, fruits, daddies, and chapatti’s where earns profits that support his career study.

He says he thought of starting a baking business when he failed to get some snack to eat in Maguru after a long day in class, he realized that students at campus really wanted such service thus decided to start immediately and students supported him.

He says due to lack of enough capital, he baked from home which enabled him not to encounter much cost like rent and others. ‘From small upkeep I earn much profit,’ he says.

According to Mandela, students can start simple business that doesn’t require much capital like selling fruits, soft drinks, chips, cheap clothes and shoes which one can do from home and can carry in his to campus that sell among other students .

With these inspiring story, you can start your own business at campus on the thing that you know students need as long as you can balance it with work.