 thank you so much for hosting me of course really i appreciate you man but i really want to know is it like a husband and wife hotel or is it just a it's a wife hotel it's a wife hotel she's the founder yeah oh wow good morning from kampala this morning maya is in the spirit it feels so good to worship god it feels so good to tell god for everything that he has done for you that's what i always tell my audience me i don't know what would take me away from god because the love that i have for god i just don't show it in public like always but deep within me this is my daily meal my daily prayer is to give god all the glory and great things that he has done in my life and in your life even if you don't believe in god i will believe in god on your behalf now last day in um yuganda yuganda and god has been great and i just have to thank god for such an amazing adventure amazing trip amazing everything in yuganda where are we right now we are in best western it's the best western plus this is the last place that we're staying i think we've slept in so many we've slept in the best places and we never spent a dollar in all the places that we slept so god has really been good and we are so grateful that's why you see my eyes feeling so grateful this morning yeah i mean for me i always feel grateful all the time no matter what because without god's grace upon me believe me something that happens to me i keep on asking myself what's happening what's going on i might don't want so i don't take the glory i have to give the glory to god but anyway i met the person in here from another hotel that i went to sleep from somewhere else and he's like ah i'm a big fan and i would love to host you before you go yeah so i cannot just sleep in here just like that i felt like just showing you guys around taking you guys around so that in case you make a trip to campala you will also come and sleep here the room it's on another level i love i love i love this setup the sitting room is just so beautiful oh wow look at this kitchen cute are cute my goodness i love this wow i see what you are saying thank you oh see the bed this is so beautiful oh wow this did you guys know he's coming with his wife or what guys look at that oh my god so much i really appreciate it you know what oh god i think we should go for breakfast no let's work out first i'm not a workout person plus i'm so hungry let's eat first then work out no no what you eat go to the gym and make it work you can't work out in an empty stomach what do you guys think what do you guys think let's work out no let's eat then work out oh okay we're gonna eat then go work out great let's go i'm sorry i will pass for it man main course main course main course do you guys eat fruit in the morning i knew it you can't have something to do with banana breakfast in uklanda but i don't call it plantain yeah of course that's what i want thank you i know this anytime i eat this make sure you don't sleep next to me i think you see i'm not from east africa but anytime i come to east africa the only team that i want is african we are going to make for you nice african thank you because i'm an african i don't eat english very fast how you go fast we have a lot of african breakfast and i'm sure that african tea see whenever you come to east africa ask them for african tea and you'll never go wrong every country in east africa got it rwanda, ukanda, tanzania, kenya all of them they got an african tea i'm telling my wife i don't need an african tea in when you go back to back i've never done this before having breakfast before you work out how can you work out alone in the store my god i feel like just eating banana alone is good for work out but i eat rice chicken bacon and right after that i jump into the gym to burn the calories which means i shouldn't have eaten right because until my finish i'll be hungry again let me know what you guys think in the comment section this is crazy but i love the fact that this hotel is tall like a boutique hotel while exercising they've got the view of the swimming pool right in front of you something for the ice you get it we don't get it right from exercise i really want to jump into this swimming pool but believe me or not it feels like i'm in Antarctica it feels like a frozen pool man this is the difference between being in west Africa and being in east Africa to stream the cold in the morning but no matter what i have to jump in guess what i found sankara pan africa lively that's incredible man so Ugandan's a pan africanist yeah whoa i wish i had time to go in there just to go check it out what kind of books that i can read in here believe me or not poma sankara is the best president africa has ever had do you agree with me let me know in the comment section and why do you think so nice to meet you man you see yourself man of course i'm enjoying Uganda you have a message for anyone who has never been to Uganda before thank you thank you all of them are behind me i thought of them to come for training they would not behind me they can't match me oh my goodness what did you guys eat this morning wow in nigeria which part of nigeria i want you to compare Lagos and Kampala which one is chaos Lagos you know Lagos is chaos but i feel like Kampala is an organized chaos it's chaos but everyone is moving everyone is moving but they don't hit each other hitting each other man it's good to see you you know that's a kenyan maritu and nigerian and they both used to live in Ghana you see this this is the africa we want yeah so cool i mean i always see a kenyan lady maritu in nigeria man but this one i've never seen this combination before never yeah never just less than 30 seconds how did both of you meet we met in Ghana yeah i wanted to go on one date just one date and then it's all into this charlie wasso so the union happy in Ghana yeah i'm so glad i really get super excited whenever i see women winning i get super excited want to know that this project was done by woman because i believe that young women out there need mentors that's why i'm here today we were born and raised in Uganda i am born and raised in Uganda uh my early childhood was in a small village in western Uganda a village called Kepsoni we grew up in a big family uh i think my father happened to have been one of those successful in in his family so he raised his sister's children his relatives children so the family was big um simple but a happy childhood we never lacked we didn't have much but we never lacked i walked i think three to three point five kilometers while i was young up to primary seven what do you mean by your walk i walked to school day in day out three three point five kilometers a single day so that makes what seven seven two and four every day every single day i hope you had shoes though i had shoes and at one time i think the other kids were looking at me like why do you have shoes so my father said so you're not going to have shoes so i walked i was the odd man out so no shoes but absolutely happy childhood you know what brought me here cool your hotel i i i've spent i've traveled across Africa i've slept in countless hotels but as soon as i entered the room i and i became an ambulance you know more like shouting wow wow wow all the time you know that's how ambulance moves yeah the sound is like moving fast wow wow wow wow wow wow wow this day i came to the room from the bed i was like wow from the chest i was like wow from the dining i was like wow the kitchen area i was like wow that's how i turned into an ambulance and i was like i really want to know the person behind us and i was told that this hotel is owned by a woman and i'm like you know what if the owner is a woman an african then i need to speak to the person and that's what brought me here so i really want to know the journey okay the inspiration behind the hotel first before i ask him a next question i love traveling and i've traveled quite a bit i like staying in boutique hotels because they are small they're personal i don't like the the sound of echo in big hotels or just being a number so in these small hotels i get the attention that i deserve so i realized that there was none in the country and if there were any i didn't think they were up to the standard international standard so i hatched it in my head put it on the paper and boom we have a hotel but i believe that it did not just wake up and build a hotel so i want to know how the journey started i mean you were born in east west yuganda came to campala at what point did you come to campala i came to campala when i finished primary school i finished primary seven i spent most of the time in campala with my elder siblings who are already in campala so i went to school here i've always lived here and i love living here you never left the country never left the country you mean whatever you've achieved you achieved it in yuganda absolutely but i thought it's not possible to make it in yuganda it's possible to make it in yuganda it's harder to make it when you're a woman yes what do you mean how hard very hard it's a it's a chauvinistic society and people do not think that a woman can actually achieve big things women are supposed to be seen and not hard and look after children and prepare food for the family and that's it you own a hotel but i don't believe that that's not your first ever business no um i mean i could talk about the businesses i've done all day i have done real estate as in getting big chunks of land parcel them and sell small pieces i have built uh apartments houses and sold them at different times i have been an agent of yuganda breweries selling their products i have been an agent of b ati i have been in financial services i have been in construction i have been there i have been there actually the hotel was partly also to look at retirement what would how would my retirement look like so doesn't mean that you you are working i mean nine to five job or when you started you're you just started with your own business no i worked i mean my life i have always been a private sector person when i finished university i had a stint in one or two places but largely i've been in business why maybe i'm an employable i like being my own boss i like doing my own thing but um that's what i like um i like to make things happen what is the first ever business that you did well the first business that i did i've done so many but the first first business to exchange something for money goods for money i was at the university and i was a finance secretary so when we organized a social for for you for the whole i realized that the guys who sold drinks walked away with a lot of money i was like okay this is interesting next time i organized my own drinks i brought in somebody to sell and i walked away with the money is that money that you built on to today no i come from a family of people who have a little money have had a little money so yes that building from that one business another family that's it what is that one thing that you think you did different i don't think there's one thing i have done differently but i think i have been consistent i've been resilient and i have been disciplined from your experience what do you think an ordinary african can do to make it in africa because i believe that if you have done it i can do it too of course and i have no doubt that i also think that many people have have made it in africa i just happen to be one of them i think that just like anywhere else you need to focus on what you want in life and have the discipline to pursue and never give up i'm not here because i have not lost in business i am not here because i have had it all perfectly uh fought out no i've had setbacks a major can you give us a major one major setback look at covid we just opened the hotel because we opened the hotel october 2018 and one year later there was covid we closed for two years wow i mean we lost a lot of money i thought and um so people came and said you can turn it into a hospital you can turn it into this i i just paid the cost and i i believe that we have survived so what are the lessons that you've learned running the hotel i have learned big lessons um i've learned that hotels are not buildings they're no beds they're no chairs hotels are systems hotels are people and i have learned to value people because i'm not at the hotel 24-7 but when you arrive at the hotel somebody will welcome you somebody will make your bed somebody will have cleaned your room and all those people matter how many people have your employees right now i think we have about 52 people most of them women wow the woman empowerment yes why are you empowering women oh my god i know what it means to be a woman i know what it means to break through as a woman um i mean i raised my kids as a single woman so i know what it means every girl child needs an opportunity and it's not always big it is because they can work and put food on the table of their kids it's because they can come to such a hotel and learn a thing or two and be mentored and and women are very reliable in a workplace if you have a message for young women out there all that message be young women out there i know it's hard but believe in yourself work hard be disciplined and be consistent i am a i'm an eternal optimist i think anything is possible you just have to put your mind on it must women depend on their men young women out there no i think women should work with their men i think it should be a partnership i think it's more beautiful when it's a partnership everybody needs to play a part make a contribution but that's what i think i don't believe that i women should sit down and everything comes to them how does it feel like being a female entrepreneur in africa it's both sweet and sour i've been called bossy i've been called aggressive because women are supposed to be hard seen and not be hard women are supposed to answer when they're asked but when you run a business you need to talk you need to be hard you need to direct you need to give orders and that doesn't go well with many people including very low accada they they don't feel like a woman should order them around so i've earned all those names um at the same time it's nice to know that you can make a contribution you can change a life somebody is feeding their kids because of you it's very it's very very satisfying what is that one thing that makes you so proud well i don't think there's any one thing that makes me proud but um i'm glad i have raised my girls and raised them well or i was lucky to be able to raise them to so that they don't lack they don't feel like oh my god or my mom can't afford this my mom can't afford that what inspires you to do what you do what makes me out of bed and inspires me is to do good just to do good for whatever i do what do they say has been your biggest lesson resilience never to give up never to give up no matter what no matter what never to give up the major challenge that you face throughout this whole journey to really have a place um on the table as a woman as a business woman many times people just underlook you just because you're a woman when you're even smaller in size people start sizing you up just at every turn for no good reason you know we have so many young people out there who believes that it's not possible to make it on the continent unless you travel out there and you're here telling me that you never left the country if you have a message for africans what would that message be i think the future is in africa i like being in africa i'm a proud african and you can make it in africa just focus on whatever you're doing it and it doesn't matter what but but in africa capital is a problem especially starting up a new business yes it's hard because capital is expensive capital in africa is very expensive but believe me there's always a way you can start small and you can grow and that's what patience does and that's what discipline does you don't make as they say it doesn't matter how much you make it matters how much you serve so if you make 20 dollars please keep 10 the tendency the urge for quick gratification you want to go and buy a shoe you want to do all these things no those ones will come so patience patience discipline i do not think you can do it without discipline if you had a chance to change one thing in africa what would it be i would make sure that a girl child is valued is supported because they carry the burden of these families some of them at a very early age and some of them with really great potential they don't get to get there because they drop out of school because they were pregnant or if there is no money in the family the first child to get out of school is a girl and really really if there's something i can do or in the future if there's something i can do is to support anything girl child if you have a message to africans living in the diaspora or that message be the message will be there's so much that africa can be can offer you it's the next emerging market it's the most growing economy set of economies in the world and the opportunities and it's for us to leverage we can't wait for other people to do it for us so all this brain drain most of the people in the diaspora are really people who are talented you know doctors and engineers bankers software engineers people can come and build this country to the next level um there's really not a big software industry yet in Uganda everything's telecom so anybody in the diaspora is you need to start focusing about making the back where you come from and building a country and your your continent honestly thank you so much for talking to me and i really appreciate your time