Research on Markets in Kampala, Uganda

Recently an article appeared in the New Vision as one of the series on Uganda at 50 years of Independence. In that article, they explained the evolution of trade in Uganda and how Africans were kept away from trade and left to be peasant farmers because they were poor and could not build shops a phenomenon that continues to date. Africans were put into markets to sell agricultural products, local crafts and metal products produced by local smiths. Up to the early 1980's, markets were in certain fixed places and it was not easy to start a market without the authority of local markets. Due to the increasing population, markets have sprung up everywhere in the country. Markets today are places today where the poor Africans go to start their businesses; it is still a perpetuation of what existed then unfortunately. At the MUBS Entrepreneurship Centre a research is being done on markets in Uganda trying to establish why they develop, who sells in them, what they sell and why they are spread everywhere. Owino is the largest market in the country with over 30,000 vendors, the majority of which are women. What is Uganda's business model? Why can't majority of Ugandans establish fixed shops? These are interesting questions for researchers like us.