At 29, Kamuntu owns three big businesses

Lawrence Barkeley Kamuntu, the founder of Kamuntu Holding Limited at his clinical laboratory in Kireka. Photo by Eronie Kamukama

What you need to know:

Lawrence Barkeley Kamuntu started business in 2011 after a failed attempt at getting a government job, and a robbery that ended his employment opportunity at a friend’s clinic. He tells Eronie Kamukama how he founded Kamuntu Holdings Limited that earns him millions of Shillings.

Lawrence Barkeley Kamuntu hardly has the look of a managing director. Unlike many executive officers who work quietly in their offices, Kamuntu is constantly moving around his laboratory in Kireka, attending to clients. His phone is continuously buzzing with some clients asking for directions to the clinical lab.

This is his daily routine. “I only rest one and a half days in a year. I rest half day on Easter and full day on Christmas Day,” he says.
The 29-year-old is the founder of Kamuntu Holdings Limited, a company with two clinical laboratories, a pharmacy and an arm that exports agricultural produce.
For a man his age, he has more ambition than one can imagine. Could it be his humble beginnings? His father died when Kamuntu was four and his mother, a peasant, barely got him through school. His schools tuition was always in arrears but he got by through felling eucalyptus trees and selling them as firewood.

Mr Kamuntu, a medical laboratory and technology graduate from Mulago Paramedical School, believes the environment he grew up in nurtured him that way. But also, life has not given him a lot of alternatives. “This is when you are tormented with a lot of problems and you realise you are alone. I was the first person in my family to step in Senior Six, first to graduate. I get a feeling they look up to me so I cannot fail them,” he says.

The company was founded in 2011 after Mr Kamuntu’s failed attempt at getting a government job, and a robbery that ended his employment opportunity at a friend’s clinic.
“I was earning Shs450,000. I did that job for two months until thieves broke in and took the equipment I was using. I lost the job because I was made irrelevant,” he explains.

He decided, instead of getting back to the streets in search of a job, he could set up his own clinical laboratory. His business, which he describes as a one-man show then, started off on rocky ground in 2011.
“It started in terrible pain, consternation and total tribulation because it started from scratch,” Mr Kamuntu says.

He had to find capital. For two years at medical school, he had ridden a Yamaha Mate motorcycle he bought Shs1m while working as a sales clerk at a petrol station. He sold it at Shs750,000 to start up the lab. With an additional Shs50,000, he paid rent for a single room that did not even meet the minimum standards on Kamuli Road then.
He acquired a microscope, an electrical centrifuge and a lab incubator at a total of about Shs6m, all on credit. He only deposited Shs500,000 on the equipment.

“I remember I started on January 11 and that very day I made Shs8,000. I felt a ray of hope,” he says. By December, he had managed to pay off the debt, bought a generator and refrigerator for the lab. On December 16, thieves wiped the entire lab clean.
“I kept quiet for 10 minutes. That is the day I felt like abandoning the business to join the army,” he says. He pursued that thought. Meanwhile, he had saved Shs405,000 from the lab and because his friend was returning from China, Mr Kamuntu decided to buy a microscope at Shs750,000. This could give him a fresh start.

“I called a friend who helped me with Shs500,000. I gave the man Shs750,000 for the microscope. Up to this day, he has never brought it and I have never seen him,” Mr Kamuntu says.
He used plan B, finding clients, doing preliminary work at his office and outsourcing lab equipment to do the final tests. In 2012, life became harder and the army idea resurrected. He approached army officials in Bombo but he was too late and had missed two months of training. On his way back home, some children changed his life.

“The taxi was stuck in jam in Bwaise, I peeped through the window and saw small children playing in the mud. I thought to myself, if my pregnant girlfriend produces and there is no man to provide for her, my child will suffer,” he thought.
“I purposed to do all it takes to make sure things will be okay. I dropped the army idea and focused on the business. Up to this day, I work Monday to Sunday,” he says.

Fresh start
Mr Kamuntu acquired new equipment on credit. Starting out was easier given that he had built credibility over the past years. By the end of eight months, he had replaced all his stolen equipment. For three years, he had been the lab technician, accountant, cleaner, receptionist and counselor because he was avoiding unnecessary expenditure.

But today, the business is doing better. One and a half years after the robbery, he made his first profit. With his profits, he has been able to open a pharmacy and another laboratory in Kireka. This branch alone is worth Shs70m. Mr Kamuntu says he only invests when it is necessary.
Since 2014, he has hired 11 permanent staff that he pays daily to get rid of laziness. He admits the business is built on a culture of professionalism, honesty, sacrifice and hard work.

Achievements
Mr Kamuntu recognises business sustainability as a major achievement. Seven years later, his company emerged seventh in the Top 100 Small and Medium Enterprises survey in Uganda last year. The clinical laboratories and pharmacy earn him a profit of Shs50m in a good year.
However, he is still unsatisfied with where the business is.
“Now is not the time to say I am somewhere. I feel I am behind schedule,” he says.

Challenges

Still, he has challenges, the biggest being incompetence of workers and business uncertainties like the dollar rising against the Shilling.
Also, he considers himself a hindrance to the business. “Proprietors have issues. We have to take care of children. Parents and relatives are calling you for help. So you find yourself depriving your business of resources,” he explains.

He struggles with balancing business and personal money. “I fail many times,” he admits. He has found a trick in creating separate bank accounts for each business venture.
He plans to develop his plots of land, start a farm of 1,000 cows, set up a pre-primary/primary school and a hotel after 2020. He intends to diversify his investments to act as a fallback position for his current health businesses.