Pakasa winners back from China

The 2018 Pakasa Youth Awards winners are back from China where they spent a week on a knowledge sharing business trip.

Victor Kalenzi, Fred Nsubuga Bakka, Stephen Ssembuya and Nabila Mbogo, Ashar Cheptoris and Brenda Nasaka who represented Maxima Nsimenta, arrived in the country on Saturday.

On return the winners shared their experience on how the trip has changed their attitude towards country and businesses.

"I was amazed by the way the Chinese have been able to transform their country in a period of like 40 years. They have big industrial parks, very organized towns which left me thinking that as a country we need to be aggressive and it begins with an individual," Cheptoris said.

When the winners were being flagged off to China, the Ambassador of China to Uganda, Zheng Zhuquiang challenged them to use the opportunity to gain more business knowledge to better their businesses.

Ssembuya said while in China he hunted for this knowledge.

"The level of organization is on another level, the city is well planned and clean. I know if such level of organization is used in running my business it will prosper. I also got contacts for business and I believe the next time I travel to China it will be easy for me," Ssembuya said.

Much as the time they spent in China was not enough to interact and see most of the things, Nabila Mbogo says the issue of time is paramount in everything Chinese do.

"I have always taken time for granted; I lose a few minutes or hours and don't take seriously. But in China it is different. Time is very important; they don't waste time and always deliver their things on time. I think if I respect time like they do I will create change in society," Mbogo said.

Although she got contacts for her business Mbogo feels she still has unfinished business and will have to go back.

Like his fellow winners, Nsubuga also appreciated the development in China but says if the development models in China are brought to Uganda there can be a shift in the speed at which Uganda develops.

"If at all our leaders can benchmark these Chinese we shall see a lot of transformation in a few decades. For my business I have gotten contacts and will always seek guidance from them. I can't forget to thank the New Vision and the Chinese embassy for this opportunity to expose us to China," Nsubuga says.

The Pakasa awards competition is an annual event organised by New Vision.This year Vision Group partnered with the Chinese Embassy.

Launched in 2015, the Pakasa Youth Awards seek out exemplary young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 40 years from all over the country.

The project is aimed at inspiring a mind-set change among young people in Uganda to regard entrepreneurship as viable livelihood in the face of rampant youth unemployment.