Share this article
Nahwera Eufemia, a Makerere University student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Industrial livestock and Business at the college of veterinary medicine Animal Resources and Biosecurity. Nahwera is a young African lady who aspires to positively impact my community, district Bushenyi, Uganda, and Africa as a whole through community-based outreach, empowering, motivating, and inspiring youth. Nahwera participated in our entrepreneurial baraza last year with her company, Pearl Api, and she was one of the top ten winners, earning her the opportunity to receive coaching from some of the experts in our community to help her succeed in her business. During our conversation, we learned how her business was doing after African careers network helped her.
Pearl Api Empowers Households with School going Children Economically by Training them in Beekeeping, equipping them with beehives and protective equipment for Honey harvesting, and adequate expertise. In addition, we provide a reliable and ready market for their product,i.e honey, Propolis, Bee venom, and honey Combs. This is meant to enable these households to earn Income which is to pay School fees for Students, cater for other scholastic materials and also Provide employment opportunities to the youth and women in society. We are addressing SDGS such as No Poverty, good health, and well-being through providing 100% pure quality Honey to the Market, Quality education, decent work, and economic growth among others both directly and indirectly. Catch our conversation with Nahwera Eufemia below.
WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE YOU IDENTIFIED
- Inadequate, expensive, and adulterated honey on Market
WHAT IS THE PROJECT OR BUSINESS IDEA THAT YOU DEVELOPED TO ADDRESS THIS CHALLENGE?
- Beekeeping the community-based youth project: We train the youth on how to make bee hives and produce good quality honey in large quantiles
HOW DID YOU USE THE FUNDS YOU WON TOWARDS YOUR BUSINESS
BUDGET
| ACTIVITY | BUDGET (IN USD) |
| Stock of raw materials | 100 |
| Branding, marketing & promotion | 100 |
| Salaries | 100 |
| Distribution | 50 |
| Total | 350 |
HOW HAS YOUR BUSINESS IMPROVED FROM THE ADDITIONAL SUPPORT YOU HAVE RECEIVED FROM THE COACHING AND FUNDS
- Pearl API Managed to hire the workers to renovate old structures that had old roofing
- Pearl Api managed to increase the number of customers i.e. from 100 t0 125
- Pearl Api managed to add more 8 bee hives
- We also managed to secure a place and established an apiary where 0ver 50 bee hives can be placed (project expansion)
- Increased Project Visibility. We were able to create accounts for our project on social media after the coaching sessions. https://www.linkedin.com/company/pearl-api/.
HOW DID YOU WISH TO SEE YOUR BUSINESS GROW, WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
- We wish to see our business create employment for over 100 people in our community.
- We wish to see our business become the leading honey producer in our country.
- We are targeting 100,000 followers by end of 2024.
- To establish branches (selling points) in each district in Uganda by 2030
- To produce and sell 1tone of honey by end of this year
- To become the best exporting honey company from East African
