FILM AND PHOTOGRAPHY 

Edgar Kwesiga: Founder of Spire Creative (Film Production Agency)

After starting his journey aged just 15, watching others edit and being a runner, Edgar now owns his own film production agency. A self-taught motion graphic designer, the agency

produces film, TV and radio commercials, motion graphic design and branding. Spire can produce a 360 campaign in under a week.

Richard Mulindwa: Movie Producer, Writer & Director

Mulindwa has produced nine movies and is currently working on The Torture and Mistakes Gals Do. His agency, Limit Productions Ltd, attracts upcoming actors and now has seventy actresses and actors.

His work focuses on problems of the ordinary citizen, making them relatable for audiences to watch and enjoy.

Oscar Ntege: Photographer

Boasting two studios employing a minimum of ten people, Ntege enjoys sharing his passion for photography with others.

He has different bespoke internship programmes which mentor upcoming photographers in Uganda. Furthermore, his Clicks of Hope campaign brings photographers together to give back to the community.

Stuart Tibaweswa, Photography

With a focus on experience, Tibaweswa creates photos that tell a story to the audience.

His photos are emotional, engaging and visually interesting; paying sharp attention to detail and the subject matter.

‘Surviving BidiBidi’ is such a project that tells refugees stories. He won the Uganda Photo Press Photographer Award (UPPA) 2017.

Beorhts Beards

Beorhts Beards is a collection of creative photographers and filmmakers sharing their art. They pride themselves in vibrant, high-quality work delivered with exceptional customer service. Their approach encourages collaboration and offers the opportunity to share work and skills with fellow creatives.

Anita Beryl: founder, Beryl Qouture

A fashion designer, couturier and entrepreneur, Beryl is the founder of this luxury fashion brand established in 2011.

Focusing on haute couture and bridal wear, the brand also has ready to wear pieces for all genders. Under this brand is the Anita Beryl mentorship programme which intends to create a new generation of fashion spearheads.

Charles Mulumba: Creative director, brand MulC Ug

A student at Makerere University Business School, he is the creative director of MulC Ug. He mentors budding fashion designers,stylists and models whom he encourages never to give up on their dreams.

Christabel Kente: founder, Kente Christabel Haute Couture

A self-taught fashion designer, Kente concentrates on the classic African culture with a touch of modern style in her brand Kente Christabel Haute Couture.

She embraces creativity and originality in her Afro-Heritage Couture line to embody a Ugandan identity in fashionable clothes.

Juliana Nasasira: founder, Kwesh

Launched in 2012, Kwesh creates ready-to-wear and bespoke pieces for all genders. Kwesh focuses on contemporary African-inspired designs, rich colours and urban fabrics.

Nasasira saw fashion as an avenue to express her creativity and passion and has created a strongpresence in the market having dressed Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o.

Kennedy Zziwa: founder, Hair By Zziwa

Zziwa Hair Studio merges traditional styling with modern trends to provide a an experience for all customers.

The salon is in the process of transforming to an eco-friendly space, focusing on using green products, renewable energy resources and recycling.  His salon and hair academy provide employment for 70 young people.

INNOVATIONS & ICT 

Brian Gitta: founder, Matibabu

Gitta is the CEO and co-founder of Matibabu, a company that offers a non-invasive malaria diagnosis kit. The 24-year-old inventor created a device called Matibabu, which detects malaria without drawing blood.

Matibabu, which means treatment in Swahili, works by examining red blood cells when clipped to a patient’s finger and does not require a specialist to operate.

The device shines a red beam on a patient’s finger which identifies malaria symptoms and sends the results of the patient’s test straight to their cell phone.

Andrew Mugerwa: founder, MyLib App

Mugerwa realised two constants among young Ugandans; a poor reading culture and a heavy dependence on the internet.

Through the start-up known as Softbox Limited, he and his team went on to build My Lib App.

It was designed to not only cultivate a better reading culture among school-going children in Uganda, but also make the curriculum more interesting and understandable.

MyLib App i s a digital compilation of Uganda classroom curriculum notes made exciting with animations, illustrations, voice-overs and simple easy-to-read sentences.

Phyllis Kyomuhendo: Co-founder,  mSCAN

mSCAN , the innovation co-founded by Kyomuhendo, is an ultrasonic probe and software that supports ultrasound scanning in low-resource areas.

This technology addresses the problem of inadequate ultrasound services for expectant mothers. With her childhood dream being to grow into a secretary because she was always smart, Kyomuhendo found a new passion at the age of 12, to go out and help others.

It was this that pushed her to pursue a medical course, and while at it, she realised that most of the medical challenges could be solved by technology.

In here, she found the unmet need for ultrasound scans, and together with her team, went on to build this award-winning intervention that just might change the fortunes of many expectant mothers countrywide.

Jacqueline Mutumba: Founder, Digi Health Ltd

Data collection is an important process for health service delivery.

However, the process is tedious and subject to many inaccuracies. It is this challenge that Mutumba and her team sought to address through Digi Health.

DigiHealth Mobile is a web and mobile tool that digitises the process of data collection and reporting to improve information integrity for the institutions that will rely on this information to make decisions, plans and recommendations.

It works both online and offline, making it widely usable for all health data collectors who can access a mobile phone.

Julius Naika: CEO & founder, Naika Group & famunera.com

In 2016, Naika launched Famunera, a platform that has opened out limitless opportunities to local farmers.

In the two-year period of existence, it has served over 100,000 farmers and created more than 200,000 indirect jobs in the agricultural value chain.

A farmer can register on the platform as a seller and get linked to buyers in the various countries across Africa in which the platform is operational.

FARMING & AGRO-PROCESSING 

Fiona Rukwanzi: Founder, Nyunya

Rukwanzi is the director of Mwigo Holdings, the stewarding company for her product Nyunya.

Nyunya is a healthy, delicious and probiotic yogurt with health benefits to people with diabetes and digestive disorders.

The fact that most yoghurt available on the market is sweetened makes it difficult to diabetic people, who ordinarily would kill to have a taste of it.

Bazil Mwotta: Founder, AgroDuuka

Mwotta has received nods in various international awards, especially for his innovation AgroDuuka, which is a platform for direct farmer-market interaction.

It is a GSM-supported interface, where a farmer can simply send a text message expressing intention to sell their farm produce prior to the harvesting period; a unique identification number is generated for the farmer by the AgroDuuka system.

This message is displayed on the AgroDuuka interface where distinct buyers can view this information, place their offers, and make orders and the farmer can go ahead to directly connect with the buyer.

Jean Onyait: Founder,  Akellobanker

Onyait is the CEO of Akellobanker, a data-driven mobile platform that enable farmers, women, youth and disabled to access mechanised agricultural services, improved seed and medical services on credit.

To date, he has enrolled over 40,000 beneficiaries.

Edward Mukiibi: Founder, Developing Innovations in School Cultivation (DISC)

Mukiibi formed DISC based on his personal experiences. He came up with the initiative to offer alternative out-of-class learning, while doing farming to the students who were on punishment.

The platform has made farming an enjoyable practice, getting spread out to 310 schools and communities in Uganda.

Khamutima Tumwebaze: Founder, Young Farmers’ Champions Network 

Tumwebaze has been passionate about farming from his childhood.

Through Young Farmers Champions Network (YOFCHAN), he is pushing the agricultural agenda by cultivating a mindset change about agriculture among the youth today, while establishing a network, where those who have tasted the fruits of agriculture can act as role models to their peers.

The network is currently working with 1500 youth groups in 15 districts across Uganda.

Eddy Kenzo

Former street child Eddy Kenzo has made a huge name for himself since his first Ugandan hit Yanimba in 2008.

Kenzo is recognised at an international level and was nominated for the International Reggae and World Music Awards in 2014, Won the Kunde Awards for Best East African Artist in 2014/15 and was named Artist of the Year 2014/15 at the Nigerian Entertainment Awards, among many more.

He has also been named Uganda’s tourism ambassador. Furthermore, he supports other youths from the streets.

Felix Byaruhanga: Founder, The Tribe Ug

Byaruhanga started The Tribe Ug during his time at university as a way for youth to engage readily with the growing culture.

They organise the Ugandan Hip-Hop awards, the first of their type in East Africa, created to provide a platform for artists.  The Tribe Ug has been nominated for the best entertainment website at the 2015 and 2016 social media awards.

Mathias Mulumba, Writer

A writer and poet, Mulumba concentrates on portraying ordinary life in Uganda. He is the author of two collections of poetry and a novel, The Honking.

His work has been featured on the Pan-African poetry platform, Badilisha Poetry Radio.

Furthermore, his story Chasing My Tail was runner-up at the 2013 Africa Book Club short reads story whilst his work Poetry in Motion was described as  ‘an enterprising first’ by the Africa book club.

H2C Dance Group

Created by three young men, H2C aims to use dance to bring about positive social change in communities through their mission ‘Dance 2 Inspire’.

They conduct outreaches in schools and communities, teaching and developing youth’s dance talent and exposing them to the world outside of school and their communities.

They aim to inspire youths to focus their energy on dance so as not to become idle.

Rema Namakula

Rema began her journey by singing karaoke in high school and by 2013 had released her first solo Oli Wange .

In 2016, she was selected to represent Uganda at the fourth season of Coke Studio Africa. She has won various Hip Hop Music Awards in both 2013 and 2014 including Best Female Artiste.

Rema is an inspiration and spokeswoman to many mothers nationally and internationally.

Ronald Hakiza: Founder, UgaBus

Having almost missed out on a bus to attend a burial because all seats were taken, Hakiza founded Ugabus.com to ease long-distance bus travels to customers.

The platform is an e-ticketing company for buses, that enables travelers within East Africa to buy bus tickets online, providing secure mobile money and Visa card payment options and enabling customers to avoid long queues at bus stations.

Samson Wambuzi: Co-Founder, Yiya Engineering Solutions

Samson’s initiative, Yiya Engineering Solutions, is crafted around education.

Yiya is a nonprofit start-up which designs project-based engineering curricula and provides engineering educational opportunities to students in secondary schools in northern Uganda.

Campus Bee

Campus bee comes off as a business with a critical understanding of its audience. Just like its name, it is tailored for the university student, or campuser, as the common term goes.

Campus bee has grown from a single Facebook page, to a website, and now to a business valued at Shs 140 million. It is a hub for university gossip and news, and also a reference point for a student in search of key elements of university education, such as hostels and internship placements.

Muhammed Sekatawa: Responsible Suppliers Uganda Limited

Sekatawa established Diner’s Rice under his initiative, Responsible Suppliers Uganda Limited, to cater for the needs of the customers.

He identified rice farmer groups from Butaleja, Pallisa and Mbale to supply his company with paddy/rough rice, which was delivered to a contract miller for de-stoning, milling, polishing and grading but packaged and branded as Diner’s Rice.

Natalie Bitature: Co-Founder,  Musana Carts

While still a student, the 28-year-old came up with an innovation, the Musana Cart along with two colleagues, Manon Lavaud and Keisuke ‘Kei’ Kubota.

The two-wheeled cart has a solar panel roof, permitting the mobile vendors to cook and refrigerate their products as they go about their work.

The trio basically devised means through which Ugandan vendors can improve production and efficiency.

Andrew Mukose

Musoke founded Gifted Hands Network that trains visually-impaired women to become certified medical examiners.

The platform specialises in early detection and prevention of breast cancer, utilising the heightened sense of touch visually impaired people have to detect cancer lumps.

Monica Nyiraguhabwa

As co-founder and executive director of Girl Up Initiative Uganda, Nyiraguhabwa has created a unique model to empower and educate girls.

The organisation provides young women with opportunities to succeed and thrive as leaders in their slum communities through holistic education and economic empowerment.

Growing up in a slum herself, Nyiraguhabwa recognises firsthand the issues girls face, therefore wanted to create a better environment for young women to achieve their goals.

Moses Nkesiga

Whilst at university, Nkesiga would mobilise his classmates and take them every weekend to marginalised communities to provide legal advice on matters such as will writing and land disputes.

From this a network grew, and is now a nation-wide group of young lawyers known as Strategic Response International.

Stephen Katende

He is the founder and team leader of Kisobooka Africa, an initiative that aims to ensure financial inclusion in rural areas of Uganda through securing access to financial services, improved standards of living and education for children.

Richard Kalungi

Home Doctors Uganda is a social enterprise based in Kampala with a mission to provide inclusive home healthcare services.

As co-founder and lead doctor, Kalungi runs a team of 15 employees and has carried out over 300 home visits, as well as 67 television and radio talk shows promoting education and the healthcare home services.

The main target is patients with chronic illnesses who are unable to travel to centres – the Home Doctors are able to go to them and provide them with the support they require.

David Emong

A 28-year-old disabled athlete, Emong competed in the 2016 Paralympic Games where he became the first Ugandan to win a Paralympics medal (silver) in the men’s 1,500m T46.

He went on to win gold at the 2017 World Para Athletic Championships in London. These were milestones for Ugandan sport, as the wins were the first of their kind for Uganda, and Emong’s accomplishments propelled Uganda onto the world stage.

When not competing, Emong is a model in fighting the stigma surrounding people with disabilities, and aims to show that they are capable of much more than what is expected.

Douglas Smith

Founder of Ibanda Young Stars Soccer Academy (IYSSA), Smith supports hundreds of children, many of whom are orphans, by enrolling them in his soccer programme.

The initiative, which requires no entry fee, aims to support children by empowering them, teaching them, and providing basic necessities in order to improve their quality of life.

Alongside just playing sport, IYSSA has partnered with local schools to ensure that underprivileged children attend study.

Through IYSSA, materials necessary such as shoes are provided, and the soccer clinics help to improve awareness of illness such as HIV/Aids and have succeeded in decreasing drug abuse in the area.

Ivan Magomu

Ivan Magomu began his rugby career in 2009 and won several titles at schools level.

Magomu joined the Black Pirates in 2012 and has represented Uganda at a senior level. He is an inspiration to many upcoming young rugby players countrywide.

Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei

A long distance runner, Cheptegei is using his talent and reputation to create change.

At the 2016 World Cross Country championships in Kampala, he suffered an injury while leading and ended up last.

Cheptegei could have abandoned sport; but, he persevered. He went on to compete in the 2017 World Championships in London, where he won a silver medal in the 10,000 metres. This courage inspired others, teaching them to never give up even when things are tough.

She Cranes 7s rugby team

The national women’s sevens team has managed to represent Uganda at international championships in spite of problems with funding.

Playing at an elite level dispels the myth that rugby is a man’s sport, and helps to fight the barriers women face in the sports industry everyday.

AbBas Mpindi

Mpindi is the creative mind behind the Media Challenge Initiative which aims to build the next

generation of journalists. The academy section of this initiative provides media students a platform to gain experience through training, mentorship and experiential peer-to-peer learning.

This helps bridge the gap between journalism schools and the market. They also help promote solutions journalism, which focuses on how journalists can be part of the solutions dialogue, not only reporting on problems.

Allan Darren Kyeyune

Kyeyune boasts six years in all-round sports journalism. He currently works with the Daily Monitor and NBS TV and has previously worked for NTV Uganda.

He aims to address the gap in up-to-date sports information by utilizing social media to provide live updates of ongoing matches.

He has also launched an online show Just Darran that runs on Facebook and YouTube. In 2016, he was recognised as the Best Journalist on Social Media at the Sports Journalist Awards and in 2017, he scooped the Sports Journalist of the Year award at the Sports Journalist Choice Awards.

Canary Mugume

With a keen focus on investigative journalism, Mugume is a political reporter who believes in holding power accountable through telling the untold stories about governments in Africa.

One project is the Investigative report on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) which focuses on the regulation of GMOs to the market.

He is a journalist with the Next Media Services where he reports for NBS TV and writes for Nile Post.

Raymond Mujuni

From editor of his school newspaper, Mujuni has grown to an investigative journalist and news anchor for NBS TV and column writer for the Daily Monitor website.

During his previous work forUganda Radio Network he gained experience breaking big stories such as the Israeli-Uganda arms deal for refugees, a story that won him the runners up award in the 2014 Journalism Awards.

He makes the news easier to understand for example by using a piece of bread to illustrate the allocations of the budget during the budget speech. He tries to tell not only the story but also its impact, encouraging journalists to becoming agents of change.

Peter Malinz Kisadha, Founder Digest Africa

Digest Africa focuses on telling the stories of startups, small businesses and entrepreneurs that are making an impact on society today.

They aim to increase attention they receive and so help grow the businesses. The team has grown from soley Peter to include five people in one year as well as expanding their cover to East Africa.

In this time they have published over 350 stories on small businesses. In March 2018, Peter was selected among the 1,000 entrepreneurs to be awarded a $5,000 grant as being part of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.