If you can’t find it in Kikuubo, you probably can’t find it anywhere else in Uganda. Kikuubo is the hub of products in Uganda. It’s here that all products start their journey to the other parts of the country. Kikuubo is the heart, it’s the pulse of all manufacturers in and out of Uganda. Without a Kikuubo strategy, one cannot claim to have a distribution strategy for their consumer-packaged goods (CPG).
It’s in Kikuubo that companies such as Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) and Movit Uganda get to drive the highest volume of sales. Although these companies have their contracted distributors, Kikuubo is the hub that links to everyone, it’s the one stop point for traders dealing in multiple products.
Kikuubo is centrally located, it connects the major parks of Kampala, the old Taxi Park, the New Taxi Park, Namayiba Park and Arua Park. Because of its alley or corridor format, traders from places as far as Burundi or Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were always assured of a smooth trade. They could arrive with the morning bus, spend the day making their shopping and by evening they would be on their way back to home destination with all the required products. There’s nothing like a Kikuubo equivalent in Uganda.
Kikuubo was enhanced by the ecosystem that always developed around it such as the different plazas and malls with fashion products, Mutaasa Kafeero with electronics, and together, all these stitched a formidable ecosystem.
Given that it’s the major distribution hub for CPGs in Uganda, Kikuubo also became a hub for most counterfeits, illicit and parallel products. In Kikuubo, one will find both the genuine and counterfeited products, all marked up at distributor prices. It is thus both an opportunity and threat for many product manufacturers.
So why is Kikuubo a big deal? Because until your product is listed in Kikuubo, it’s not yet known to Ugandans. The mark of a well-executed distribution strategy is when it manages to list on the shelves and stores of Kikuubo. If Kikuubo cannot hold it, then your product still has a long way before it can break into the Ugandan market. Kikuubo is also the hub that produced many Ugandan billionaires, especially the ones that hadn’t made it through the formal education channels. It’s also famously listed as the place for last resort. It’s the place where one can count on their hustle. It’s also the muscle of Uganda’s downtown.
Because of its monetary strength, several banks opened their Kikuubo branches. Thus, it’s also a properly intermediated area. Traders do not have to travel long distances to bank their money. In the past, many traders used to be waylaid by gangs that had witnessed the volumes and value of transactions.
Yet, the product lessons from Kikuubo are not documented. You won’t find a business case in a Ugandan business school that captures these stories from Kikuubo. Kikuubo holds many business secrets, many learnings, many frameworks. The next product managers should be stationed in Kikuubo. Brand managers should spend weeks apprenticing in Kikuubo, getting grounded about the realities of CPG business, far away from the illusions of their air-conditioned offices. Brand managers and marketers have created a version of a Ugandan consumer that doesn’t exist, a one-hour trip to Kikuubo would teach them otherwise. It would anchor their power-points in realities of the business.
Just like Kisenyi, Nasser Road/Nkurumah Road, and Katwe, these Ugandan business hubs must form the grain of future business discourse in Uganda. This short piece is a starter to that direction. If Uganda has a Costco, then Kikuubo is Costco, if Uganda had a national supermarket, then Kikuubo is Uganda’s national supermarket.