Kyambogo student starts small-scale soap industry

By Joel Ogwang

JULIUS Ongom, a 27-year-old second year student of science technology on chemistry at Kyambogo University, started making soap in June 2006, at his home in Mukono.

As an experiment, he started with five bars, made from cooking the ingredients in a saucepan. Later the number increased to 100 bars. Today, Ongom makes 250 bars and sells each at sh600.
Mixing what looks like sand in water, under the blazing sun, he picks out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

“This is not sand,” he says: “But sodium hydroxide.” He swirls a stick in a blue basin containing the sodium hydroxide solution or lye.

Nearby is a drum on fire. James Onapa, his older brother, mans this section. He squats to add more wood to keep the fire burning. He holds a long stick, stirring the contents in the drum — fatty oil from pork.
Wearing a white vest and blue jeans, Ongom carries the basin and pours the solution he has made into the drum. Meanwhile, Onapa continues to stir.
The process of soap making starts here. “I use 50kgs of soap stock and 50 litres of fatty acids (ratio 1:1) to make soap,” Ongom says.

He buys the soap stock from Jinja and the fatty acids from pork joints around Mukono. The soap stock is a low grade fat that upon melting, liquifies. “I boil the ingredients in the drum for an hour to allow saponification to occur.

Saponification is the reaction between the fats and lye,” Ongom explains.
This reaction results in the formation of soap and glycerin. The latter is used in making cream for smearing on the skin. Ongom, however, gets rid of the glycerin. He then pours 14kgs of caustic soda and liquid sodium silicate. This is to improve the quality of the soap.

“It helps in giving soap that soft feel when doing laundry work,” Ongom says. It has a detergent component that removes dirt from clothes. But Ongom says: “When not properly mixed, it forms hard bits in the soap.”

He adds 5kgs of soap stone powder to increase the number of bars produced. “You get few bars if you don’t pour it in the solution,” he warns.

Two kilograms of magadi soda is poured to improve or increase on the quantity of lather formed. “It counteracts the power of excess lye in soap,” he explains. “When there is excess lye, the soap has an itching effect on the human skin.”

The last bit is pouring solvent blue to give the soap colour. This is done in small quantities until the desired colour is got. Ongom says three-four tea spoonfuls do the magic. The hot mixture is poured into a wooden square box to cool. This takes three days. After this, slicing can then commence.

The soap is supposed to be kept for at least a month before being used, he says. “This is to enable complete reactions to take place.”

Ongom says: “I sell some soap in Mukono but most of my customers are in Apac.”

The soap is transported by bus at sh25,000. He has agents who transport the soap to weekly markets in Mukono district. He earns over sh150,000 from this venture, which he says contributes to his tuition fees.

Like any other business venture, Ongom faces challenges. Notable among them is time. “It is a good business but I am still studying.” He says: “I only make soap during holidays.”

He says there is no soap stock in Mukono. He buys it from Jinja, incurring transport expenses. Above all, is the increasing price of sodium silicate. Its price rose from sh1,600 to sh2,200. This is because of the high demand from other soap making industries.

“I invest a lot of the profits in research works to get new ideas on how to make quality soap,” Ongom says. He also plans to buy lemon perfume to give the soap a good fragrance. “And once I graduate this year, I will have enough time to make as many bars as I can.”