The 2nd Uganda Investor Summit was not an event for flashy app demos and fevered pitches but a quiet statement of intent. An electric bus, designed, and assembled in Uganda by state-backed Kiira Motors, shuttled investors and dignitaries to the summit venue. Beyond a means of transport, the bus symbolised how Uganda is doing tech differently by starting with the hard stuff — manufacturing, hardware, logistics, and high-investment science — and leaving the startup hype for others.
“This summit,” said Dr. Monica Musenero, Uganda’s Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, “comes at a point when we are really designing Uganda’s science, technology, and innovation environment to go to market.”
Her voice, clear and commanding in a room full of local founders and foreign investors, did not dwell on high valuation figures or VC dreams. Instead, she made a grounded pitch for a country that has spent the last four years, in her words, “preparing the bride.”
“We have matured our innovation ecosystem,” she said. “We have custom-designed it to be suitable for the purpose. Many people have asked why we weren’t telling them what we were doing. And I’ve said — we were preparing the bride. And now it’s time to meet her.”
The goal of Uganda's technology is to develop a pipeline of high-impact, frequently science-based companies that have an impact on the actual economy of the nation, such as public transportation, energy, health, and agriculture. More than 70% of the workforce in the nation is employed in agriculture. In rural areas, more than 60% of electrical needs are still unfulfilled. Additionally, the cost of importing industrial and medicinal goods can reach billions of dollars.
The government is putting its money on technology, especially hardware and innovation that requires a lot of research, to assist the nation break out from its poor productivity rut.
She remarked, "Those of you who attended last year saw our ambition." However, we would like you to see the bride this year. We've been getting her ready. She is prepared.
The metaphor may sound poetic and obscure meaning, but Musenero’s message is clear: Uganda has done the groundwork putting policies, infrastructure, and pilot projects in place. Now, the country is seeking capital to scale what it has built.
Among Uganda’s top pitches is Kiira. Born out of a Makerere University project, the automaker has become the government’s flagship for what it calls “strategic deep tech.” With a new assembly plant in Jinja, about 90km west of the capital, and plans to produce 5,000 electric buses a year by 2026, it has already secured about $40 million in state funding.
Even though some doubt the project's viability, it's one of the best illustrations of how Uganda is utilizing public funds to develop local champions rather than relying solely on private funding.
At a high-capacity facility located close to the capital, Dei Biopharma produces more than 3,000 pharmaceutical items for both local and international markets.
It goes beyond the conference stage and involves a change from discussing policies to validating products. A pipeline of locally developed solutions for vital industries is being created by government-backed engineers who are developing and testing hardware prototypes ranging from smart meters to diagnostic tools.
“Our entrepreneurs do not have the luxury of easy money,” David Gonahasa, Managing Director at Tripesa, a payments solution startup, said during a spirited address at the opening plenary. “We have had to hustle, and hustle, we will.”
His message was both a rallying cry and a provocation. In an African tech ecosystem still dominated by consumer-facing apps, fintechs, and “move fast” ventures built for quick exits, Uganda is attempting something far more ambitious — and more difficult. The approach is already attracting cautious praise. Several investors at the summit pointed to a maturing generation of Ugandan founders who are now building for complexity, not virality.
“We saw FutureLink, eMyShopp, Flow, Tripesa — some of your portfolio companies — in the room,” Gonahasa told the audience. “And for those who got in early, we’re confident you made the right decision.”
The government is also trying to address longstanding friction points. Responding to investor feedback from the first summit in 2022, Uganda has introduced three-year tax breaks for early-stage companies, committed local capital to co-fund startups, and invested in infrastructure to support deep-tech development.
There are early signs of success. A locally built AI studio, dubbed “Crane AI,” has created offline language models tailored for Ugandan dialects. A Kampala-based company is now exporting proprietary IoT sensors to clients in Switzerland, Kenya, and Nigeria. Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) is helping Ugandan hardware engineers prototype diagnostic equipment and lab tools that previously had to be imported.
Uganda is on it’s own path
Uganda is also trying to leverage structural advantages that other African countries may lack. With nearly 75% of its 48 million people under the age of 35, Uganda has one of the youngest populations on the continent. The country is densely populated, making it an ideal place to validate and scale products quickly.
Then there’s power. Uganda has an electricity surplus—predominantly green—thanks to years of investment in hydroelectric infrastructure. While much of Sub-Saharan Africa struggles with blackouts, Uganda can credibly offer uninterrupted electricity to startups and manufacturers.
“We cannot consume all the power we generate. Your factories, your servers, your batteries — they will not go dark here,” Musenero said.
But challenges remain. Policy execution is uneven. Regulatory delays continue to frustrate foreign partners. And despite government efforts, the private capital pool remains shallow.
Given that Uganda does not rank among Africa's Big Four in terms of venture capital, Musenero is well aware of the country's financial limitations. Startups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt received more than 67% of all reported venture capital investments in Africa in 2024; these investments were mostly focused on fintech, logistics, and business-to-consumer platforms. In contrast, less than $10 million, or less than 1% of the continent's total, was invested in Uganda during that year.
Despite this, Uganda is reluctant to adopt the same strategy as its neighbors.
Musenero assured investors that the Uganda of the future would be unveiled in the next two days. "A country actively cultivating its entrepreneurial ecosystem in addition to striving to increase its GDP from $50 billion to $500 billion."
Your money will be invested in what could easily be the best validation market in Africa.”
“And yes, now we need the money. So take this journey with us,” he urged them.
For Musenero and the technocrats backing this shift, Uganda’s relative absence from Africa’s startup league tables is not a weakness but a strategic opening presenting a chance to design an ecosystem not distorted by the fast money and short timelines that define many other markets. The result is a deliberate, if slower, build, but one anchored in national industrial policy.
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