Mayeku settled for a rice business to retire to

David Mayeku, former banker and now rice dealer

What you need to know:

David Mayeku hopes to use the Shs30m cash prize, which he is competing for in the NSSF Friends with Benefits contest, to finish construction of the rice store and step up marketing of the brand, writes Eronie Kamukama.

The eventful days are long gone. He now lives a quite life, meditating on life and breathing in the love of his grandchildren. It is a good life, he says.
When work was still 9am to 5pm at the bank, David Mayeku surrounded himself with like-minded people.
Early morning hours were spent at Kampala Club warming up the brain before clocking into office.
He would wear a tie that reminded him of who he was, a banker, until mid-2016 when he decided it was time to drop it.
He booked a vacation with his family not to just see Uganda’s scenic beauty but to also ponder on what to do in his long retirement.
“We narrowed our options to growing rice. We wanted to get into communities and grow with them,” Mayeku says.
Born in Mbale District, he chose communities in Pallisa District because “rice has specific areas where it does well and we focused on what we call super rice and it does not grow just anywhere.”
His rice business was also founded on a view that someone needed to supply Kampala’s middleclass with affordable but well packaged local rice.
He believed he could compete against other imported brands such as Pakistani and Basmati rice by delivering on quality.
Once he dipped in to negotiate deals with farmers, he established some practices.
“Some homes were drying the rice on open ground. We saw where the stones came from so our target was to improve the quality of the produce,” Mayeku says.
With a mill for producing edible rice, better storage facilities and seed varieties for farmers in mind, he set out to withdraw the last lump sum of his age benefits at 60 years, not more than Shs200m.
“The agreement is I give them seed, once they harvest, they sell to us so we have standard seed that we process and sell on the market,” Mayeku says, adding: “The machine cost us Shs30m, we also bought equipment for farmers and went into actual cultivation.”
In the first year of production, there were more than five acres and 20 bags of rice harvested. Being agribusiness, sales vary. Weather patterns are a big factor.
“In 2017/18, we did 10 acres and heavy rains came and washed everything away. In 2018/19, we had a long dry spell. For 2019/20, we have joined resources with another family to do out of season growing. I am talking about irrigation when there is no rain and this is going to be our focus,” Mayeku says.
That is not the only solution to lessening the impact of climate change on the business.
He plans to enroll on the agricultural insurance scheme that provides premium subsidies for farmers.
Relying on Pallisa only is unsustainable, so relations have been established in Soroti and beyond, in cases of bulk rice orders.
“Besides the farming, we are doing a bit of trading because we have to keep supply to customers constant. We go into the region, buy rice and process it,” he says.
He anticipates once water issues are fixed through irrigation systems, acreage will be grown from 10.
Processing of rice remains at the mill, in the family’s home. Super rice has a high demand, he thinks and the following months will be a time to finally finish construction of the rice store and step up marketing.
The Shs30m cash prize, which he is competing for in the NSSF Friends with Benefits contest, should come in handy.
Now that there is no paycheck from any employer, Mayeku sees a second business path. Part of his savings have been channeled into a 27-member investments club that now has a working capital of about Shs270m. However, if only the club can find honest borrowers.
The club lends money to members depending on the economic environment. There are challenges but when it is doing the risk assessment, it makes provision for this type of risk.
some of the other things that David Mayeku has invested in
David Mayeku and his club now have money but without people to give it to, he has decided to buy Treasury Bills, Bonds and land in upcoming towns such as Kapeeka, with the hope of selling it for much more later.
“The interest received from bonds is not brought into the pool. We reinvest it to grow it. Once we buy land and sell, the funds and profit margin we get, we buy another piece of land. We still lend to ourselves but if a member introduces someone and guarantees, then we can lend to them and that is how we shall grow,”
The group of finance managers sees an opportunity in financial literacy programmes. In Mayeku’s assessment of the Fund, operations such as automation of the benefits platform make it tick but there is something still misconstrued about its existence, something that all employed Ugandans could profit from.
“Strategically, they have to do more in terms of informing savers on the importance of saving. I have a live experience having saved for the last 27 years and my life is now dependent on those funds even when not in formal employment,” he says. “They must have the urge to save Shs50,000 for 30 or more years. Their money will increase in value thanks to interest and it is protected from inflation. That engagement must happen,” he says.
To vote for David Mayeku in the NSSF Friends with Benefits competition, dial *254# or go to www.nssfug.org”