Africa-Press – Uganda. Ms Lucy Aza is the embodiment of the saying ‘hard work pays.’
What is now a sprawling business empire owned by the 82-year-old woman had a humble beginning.
Aza started her business journey in 1976 using Shs5,000 that her husband gave her.
She began selling buns in Moyo Town on a small scale after her husband, the late Sylvester Aza, who was impressed by her baking talents, advised her to start selling the bread in Moyo Town.
The response from customers was positive.
Her customer base grew rapidly and soon she was getting contracts to supply institutions and businesses.
One of such institutions was a school in Moyo District that she supplied 1,000 buns every day.
The school also contracted her to supply fresh fish on Tuesdays and Fridays.
“It was very tedious work but I told myself I could do it. My father had already died and my siblings needed help, which had to come through my hard work. I started small because I did not look at having much money to start a business,” Aza says.
She later ventured into selling spirits.
“I wanted to deal in spirits because most customers were people from Zaire [now DR Congo]. The locals were mostly interested in sugar and beers, and later I found I was in good business,” she says.
Aza diversified her business further by venturing into the beans trade in early 1980s upon learning that the commodity was on high demand in Kenya.
During the1980 election, Aza struck gold when president Milton Obote came to Moyo to canvass votes.
Aza says Obote wanted some supplies to entertain his guests. At the time, the ferry between Moyo and Adjumani could not carry lorries and the road between Arua and Moyo was risky but she rolled the dice.
Lady luck smiled on her after this trip. The president rewarded her with a Fiat lorry.
The President also gave another lorry to an association of widows in the district on a cost sharing agreement. However, the widows failed to honour their part of the bargain and Aza, who had money, ended up paying and owning it.
“Transport was my main problem and these trucks helped me to solve those challenges in transporting my spirits and beans to Kenya,” she says.
Aza had promised her father that she would take care of her siblings when he died and that was her driving force.
In 1995, Uganda Breweries management made Aza the distributor of their products in the sub-region.
Aza’s resilience, determination and hard work made her the first woman to own a bus company in West Nile.
She started the company by saving from her businesses. Lowi Buses, which plied the Arua-Kampala route, thrived in the 1990s.
Aza relinquished control of many of her businesses to her sons two years ago to take a well-deserved rest.
Ms Aza, a devout Catholic, lost her husband when she was 33 years old. She refused to remarry to focus on raising her seven children, among them the current Member of Parliament for West Moyo, Mr Tom Alero Aza.
“A friend advised me not to remarry because most men were interested in my money. I was young and I could have produced even five more children, but I wanted to raise my children well,” she states.
She also opened up businesses in Kikuubo in Kampala.
“In business, you do not need to rush. Focus on how you can expand and maintain customers. The bus business was lucrative but was bogged down by the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency. So I dissolved it and used the money to expand my beer distribution,” she says.
Aza managed to educate all her children up to higher levels of education. She says she feels proud to have offered job opportunities to more than 300 people.
For the past two years, due to her advanced age, she now stays home. She is driven out by her son once in a while to town to get updated with the new developments. Her sons now run her businesses in town.
Her last born, Mr Luigi Achiga, a former Moyo hospital administrator, says his mother taught all her children how to do business from childhood.
“She could buy bars of soap from Kampala and then cut them into small pieces and give them to us to sell on the streets of Arua. She taught us how to separate expenditures from investments and how profit is made at a very young age, and how to be disciplined when doing business,” Mr Achiga says.
Ms Sally Adiru, a businesswoman in Arua Town, says: “Whenever I see the old woman Aza, I see a living mistress of business. She would be at her business premises from morning until evening. She would welcome you with a smile and speak fondly. She is always there to advise you on how to do business.”
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