A female butcher tips on how to build

   

Muniirah Nakayiza Bukenya, a female butcher shared her story of how she managed to build her house and personal vehicle, from selling beef.

 

When I completed S.6 I joined a tertiary institution and enrolled for a business course, unfortunately I failed to get tuition fees before completing my course. I got employed by as a shop attendant and later as a waitress in a restaurant, but the salary which I was paid was very meagre. Because of poor pay I decided to remain at home unemployed.

 

I was staying at Kalerwe at my parents’ home, when a neighbour connected me to her husband who had a butcher at Kalerwe and needed a data clerk.

   

That job helped me to learn a lot of things concerning the sell of meat. I used to record all earnings and learnt how to lure customers. I was employed from 2000 until 2004. I used to report for work at 5:00am.

In 2004, I got fed up and decided to leave the butcher.   However, it was while I was working at the butcher that I met a man who was a butcher in Kalerwe Abattoir and we got married.

 

After marriage I was a house wife, until I realised I needed a job. My husband Zubair Bukenya was the one who first advised me to become a butcher, because that is where I had experience.  Unfortunately, we did not have capital to start the business.

 

Bukenya suggested that I start saving all the coins he come back with everyday. I saved these coins for almost two years and I raised sh800,000.

 

From that money, I decided to start a butcher shop and I got a place in Ntinda. At first I employed someone, but he was not giving me money as I had expected.

 

I fired him and I decided to start working myself. Many customers started coming to my butcher because they could not believe a female could cut meat. Because of that I got many customers.

   

I used to buy a kilogramme of beef at sh2,500 from Kalerwe and sold it at sh5,000 in Ntinda. Really I made a lot of profits and this encouraged to me work harder. I used to wake at 4:00 am and go to Kalerwe Abattoir, to buy meat for my shop. The most important trick in this business is customer care and being trustworthy.

 

After working for one year, I realised that we had saved enough money and we decided to buy a 100 by 70 feet plot at sh3m at Luteete Village on Gayaza Road. Lutete is about seven miles from the city centre.

 

I went ahead to save sh30,000 per week from meat sells. In a month I would have sh900,000 in savings. I saved for a period of one-and-half-years.  Since our target was to build a house, we changed tactics and started depositing money on construction materials. We used to pay directly to the hardware and we were given receipts to confirm our payment on cement and other building materials.

 

We also paid some youth in Lutete village to burn bricks for us on site. They made us 6,000 bricks. Almost all my savings went on buying building materials, by the time we started actual construction I had sh1m in savings but almost all the necessary materials required to take a house to wall plate level were available.

 

A bag of cement cost sh15,000 and we bought 60 bags.  A trip of cement cost sh50,000. However, due to challenges we were facing with our landlord in Kalerwe we had to expedite the building process. We decided to get a builder, paid him the sh500,000 ( part of the remaining sh1m) so that he would start building.

 

In 2007 we started with constructing four rooms until the house reached the wall plate, that is when we run out of building materials. 

 

The house remained at wall plate level for a month. Then I got my last savings plus money I borrowed from friends and made sh700,000.

 

We used that money to buy 20 iron sheets. By that time each was at sh19,000. 

We managed to roof only two rooms, and the remaining space was filled with wood and polythene bags. 

We entered the incomplete house with no doors or windows. It was after one week, that a friend lent us sh60,000 and we bought a front door.

 

We completed roofing in three phases and it took us two years to complete our house. 

Afterwards we extended the house by building two rooms, a kitchen and bathroom.

 

The finishing has taken a lot of money because up to now we are still working on finishing. We have so far used about sh25m. What I discovered is that once you have a plot, the construction can be done in phases. When I recall the house we entered and the one we are in now, I am confident everybody can build.

I managed to convince my husband to work with me in my butcher and we have got many things from selling meat. 

The price of meat currently ranges from sh5,800 to sh6,000 and we sell each kilo at sh8,000. A kilo of goat is sold between sh8,000 to sh85,000 from the abbaitor. We sell a kilogramme of goat  at sh10,000. 

 

There is a certain time we get little profits, but this does not discourage me, because that is how businesses are supposed to be, there are losses, and profits.

 

I wake up at 5:00am and get to the Abattoir at 6:00am. I leave work at 10:00pm. 

From a butcher, we have managed to build our house, I have my personal vehicle and my husband has his. He managed to go to Mecca and now he is a full Hajji.

 

I do not have any plan of leaving my job, because that is where I have experience and skills.  Although many people at first were wondering how a woman can work in a butcher, but now they are used.

 

I advise fellow meat sellers to know the number of customers they have and supply fresh meat other than that from refrigerators, because most customers love fresh meat. Be trustworthy and provide quality meat.

 

My advise to women, is they should not despise themselves, if you do not have  a job, it is better to be open minded so that your family can live a good life.