Spreading his entrepreneurship wings

After a series of cry outs of youth unemployment and having had a tough childhood, Anatori Turinomujuni, an entrepreneur and CEO at 24 years decided to start up an organisation known as The Way against Unemployment (TWAU AFRICA) to help the youth get out of poverty.

Beginning
As early as Primary Seven, Turinomujuni had already started doing business. Being a day scholar, he was able to juggle charcoal burning with books. It is from this that he earned Shs100,000 thus buy his first goat.
“I grew up in Bubuye, one of Kisoro’s villages, so there was an abundance of trees most of which were free. I decided to engage in charcoal burning to earn a living. You know how the village life can be,” Turinomujuni narrates.

From charcoal burning, he ventured into goat rearing starting with only one goat. By the end of senior four, he had six goats.
He later sold them for Shs600,000 and started a small retail shop in Mbarara District in his Senior Four vacation. He boosted his earnings by working as porter on construction sites as well as frying chapattis, pancakes and cassava. With this, he got more income to invest in his retail shop.
“Life is full of hustles, so I had to work hard to achieve more. That was also because I had very many plans I wanted to achieve,” Turinomujuni added.

Two-roomed house
He would later rent a two-roomed house and use one while he rented the other to his Rwandan friends who were about 20 on condition that they would buy tea and things to eat from him every morning. That enabled him to earn more profits.
However, he had to sell the retail shop as the vacation finally came to an end and he joined St Lawrence of London College in Kampala. He sold it at Shs2.5m.
While he did his best to concentrate on his studies, the entrepreneur mind was still racing with ideas. That saw him start up a suit hiring business in his A-level.

“The experience of earning money made me yearn to have do business again even when I was in school. Therefore, when the idea to hire suits to fellow students crossed my mind, I could not let it die,” he adds. From that venture, he made savings worth Shs8m.
Turinomujuni also had a stint as a student teacher and with the earnings from there, coupled with those from selling the retail shop and the suit business savings, he started a boutique in his Senior Six vacation. It majorly dealt in men’s clothes but has now expanded to a much bigger business which comprises tailors who make different styles of clothes.

Starting TWAU Africa
After making some simple research and realising that most youth are jobless and lack skills, Turinomujuni started an anti-unemployment campaign in 2017 which cost him Shs1.5m. This was a part of the savings from the boutique.
“I was working with a committee of people to do research and we discovered that some people lack jobs due to family backgrounds. Having studied on scholarship, I gained a humanitarian heart and I decided to start up this campaign to help others too,” the young entrepreneur adds.
It is this campaign that drove him to start TWAU Africa with a friend, Joy Mutoni using Shs10m. TWAU deals with programmes and projects meant to help the youth to get out of unemployment.

Projects
The projects include poultry keeping, tomato growing, and irish potato growing. He uses his father’s land in Kisoro and his brother’s land in Bujjoko to carry out agriculture. Usually, Turinomujuni looks for unemployed young people and trains them before they start working for him. From carrying out agriculture, he has been able to supply food, irish potatoes in particular, to schools as well as export some to Rwanda, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo.
TWAU also offers other services such as micro-credit programmes where he gives youths loans. He has also dealt in small investments and social enterprises such as the boutique, restaurant and other retail shops. Turinomujuni also offers help to the needy by giving them irish potatoes.
Through his endeavours, he has been able to employ more than 30 youth.
Mariam Tumukunde who works in one of the canteens owned by Turinomujuni, she says she has been able to gain managerial and communication skills.

Challenges
They say there is no journey without hurdles and Turinomujuni says his journey has been impeded by unfair tax policies which affect them yet they are a non-profit organisation.
He is, however, greatly shocked by the number of people that do not want to work hard but are always jealous when other people earn from work hard.
He hopes he will be able to expand his business and help more people.