By Ricks Kayizzi

IT is common in developed countries. Tourists usually opt to share homes with the nationals – to cut down on the lodging costs and also to understand the country and its people better. These are called home-stays. Although this practice is not new in Uganda, it has been adopted on a large scale by Akright Projects, a real estate developer, at their Kakungulu Estate project.

Located 18km on Entebbe road, the estate has been designed in a way that each household reserves at least one room for a tourist. Anatoli Kamugisha, the managing director, said this undertaking is under their eco-tourism initiative.

“We want every home-owner in the estate to share in this way of making wealth,” he said, adding that for people who have already erected houses in the estate, which has about 2,500 plots, the scheme will kick off with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) delegates.

“Over 30 of such rooms are ready. These are part of the rooms we will provide to the CHOGM delegates, come November,” he said. Alex Kamukama, the finance director, said the charges for lodging and breakfast per couple range between $30-$50 (about sh50,000 -sh85,000) per night, depending on the luxuries in the room.