A rise in start-ups across Africa has been witnessed in the recent years more than ever before. A lot of focus has been given to IT companies, but not left behind are start-ups that are pushing boundaries with little use of information technology. An increased number of Africans especially the youths are founding their own companies instead of looking for employment.
In that search for self-employment and growth, Miriam Kansymiire, a young business entrepreneur in Uganda has managed to successfully build a company in the tourism sector. Inspired by her father to be her own person, coupled with her love for travel, the graduate of BSC Quantitative Economics started her tours and travel company in 2012.
Miriam armed with little resources and plenty of information from the website began the bumpy ride into becoming a successful entrepreneur. After six months of struggling to get information from seasoned experts, lack of experience and no agents abroad to help secure tourists plus constant discouragement, she finally landed her first customers. She never looked back since then, the only way to go was forward.
So Miriam enlisted her company on free websites, attended tourism seminars, workshops and networked with more people in the industry as the businesses continued to pick up. Even though she has had to work from home mostly, the young entrepreneur is finally looking for an office space.
The young lady was among the selected few from Africa to attend the Washington Mandela Fellowship programme 2015, which elevated her business to the next level. As Ms. Kansymiire looks for office space, she is also excited to be hiring new staff, attending more tourism exhibitions to increase her visibility and engage travel agents to increase her clientele base.
With Miriam Kansymiire’s continued passion to build her empire, Kagera Safaris, in Uganda and beyond, she hopes her work with communities to empower people through cultural tourism will also pick up.
The young lady believes that Uganda has so much to offer tourists from across the world.
