Investment analyst Expeditto Gitta. PHOTO/ILLUSTRATION
When it comes to investing, the gospel many East Africans have been taught is that the real money—life-changing, yacht-buying, legacy-building kind of money—is made in the US markets. The playground of tech titans like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft seems like the only place where your Shs36 million could turn into Shs3.6 billion. Around here? You're told to be grateful if you beat inflation.
But what if that narrative is incomplete? What if, just maybe, East Africa is fertile ground for the next generation of long-term, high-growth investments—if only we learn to see differently? That’s something that Mr Expeditto Gitta, a financial markets specialist who is also an investment adviser, challenges.
He believes that the secret to building wealth isn’t tied to geography, but to time, judgment, and discipline. The idea isn’t just to ride the next hype wave—it’s to bet on solid companies, in solid economies, and let time do the compounding magic. And guess what? It’s already working.
Mr Gitta’s journey, beginning with a humble buy into Bank of Baroda Uganda at Shs15, has returned more than 100 percent in just 21 months. Bralirwa in Rwanda? Nearly 70 percent in 6 months—and still climbing. This is more than a victory lap. It’s a quiet rebellion against short-term thinking and a rebuttal to the myth that nothing monumental can happen here. It’s a lesson in perspective: that good companies in East Africa—those with strong operating models, growing customer bases, and rising dividend payouts—can absolutely deliver returns that rival the so-called “big leagues.”
The stock market
So, what exactly is the stock market? Strip away the charts, jargon, and shouting on trading floors, and it’s actually simple: it’s a marketplace where ownership in companies—tiny pieces of them called “shares”—are bought and sold.
When you buy a share, you're not gambling, you're owning. You're saying, "I believe in this business enough to ride its highs and weather its lows." If the business grows, your wealth grows too.
Now, the modern idea of investing in stocks as a way to build generational wealth has been evangelised by titans like Warren Buffett, the billionaire from Omaha who famously turned patient investing into an art form.
Through his company Berkshire Hathaway, he bought boring but solid businesses like Coca-Cola and American Express and held them for decades. That patience minted him a fortune north of $100 billion (Shs364.8 trillion).
Buffett’s mentor, Benjamin Graham, taught that the market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine in the long run. Translation? Hype may win the day, but substance wins the decade.
It's a philosophy that made legends—Buffett, Peter Lynch, John Templeton, and more. And then came the tech boom. Investors who believed in companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Tesla early on saw returns that were not just life-changing—they were era-defining. These became the fabled “100-baggers,” turning $10,000 (Shs364.8 million) into a million or more.
In the US, investing in stocks didn’t just build wealth—it became the wealth.
Developing markets
But here’s the twist: in many developing countries, including those in East Africa, the stock market never became a household word. Why? For starters, it’s not part of the culture. In places like Uganda, Rwanda, or Kenya, many people still view stocks as risky speculation—something for the rich, or worse, for gamblers.
And to be fair, in markets where volumes are thin and liquidity is tight, it can feel that way.
Add to that limited access to financial education, weak investor protections, volatile currencies, and political uncertainty, and you’ve got a cocktail that keeps many smart, capable people sitting on the sidelines.
Meanwhile, the same names who dominate in developed markets—Buffett, Bezos, Musk, Bogle—are studied like gospel in business schools across Africa, even though few local equivalents have emerged with the same scale or visibility.
The result? A generation of investors that knows the game, but hasn't fully played it—yet. But that’s starting to change.
People like Mr Gitta are not just investing; they’re rewriting the playbook. They're showing that with enough foresight, research, and patience, East Africa’s public companies can become wealth machines.
They may not be building the next iPhone, but they are building banks, telecom giants, and beverage empires—brick by brick, dividend by dividend.
Smart wealth growth
I meet Mr Gitta in Kampala, and he introduces me to something intriguing: a “2-bagger.” That’s a company that doubles your investment—put in Shs100, and you walk away with Shs200. Then there are 10-baggers. And 100-baggers.
Imagine putting Shs36.7 million into a 100-bagger. In 10 years, you could be sitting on Shs3.67 billion. That’s not just a return—it’s a wealth revolution.
Now, here’s the thing: most people believe that these kinds of life-altering returns are the preserve of Wall Street. That only in the US—home to Apple, Nvidia, and Amazon—do those miracles happen.
“But history alone doesn’t make money,” Mr Gitta says with a chuckle. “If it did, historians would be the wealthiest people—imagine them with stacks of cash!”
Instead, he argues, it’s about recognising companies that are adapting to new trends, executing well, and compounding value quietly over time.
It’s the kind of thinking that would make Mr Benjamin Graham proud. He once said, “The investor’s chief problem—and even his worst enemy—is likely to be himself.”
Mr Gitta seems to agree. His first big win? Bank of Baroda Uganda (BoBU). He and some clients bought shares in February 2024 at Shs15 each.
Today, those shares are trading at Shs24.7, a 64.6 percent gain. Add in the Shs6 in dividends they’ve collected over two years, and the total return is a neat 104.6 percent. More than double the money in just 21 months.
And then there’s Bralirwa, Rwanda. Mr Gitta’s team bought in at 180 RWF (Shs459.355). Six months later, the stock rose to 270 RWF (Shs689.032)—a return of nearly 70 percent.
Not to mention, Bralirwa just announced a dividend of 35.96 RWF (Shs91.8) per share—up 25.34 percent from last year.
That’s not just growth; that’s income that’s also growing. That’s compounding—Warren Buffett’s favourite word—at work.
Mr Gitta expects the stock to rise even further before May 30, 2025, as investors rush to buy in and qualify for the dividend.
“When companies in East Africa declare juicy dividends, people scramble to buy—and that drives the price up,” he says.
He’s clear-eyed about the psychology of investing. “Just because everyone agrees or disagrees with your investment doesn’t make you right or wrong,” he says. “What matters is how solid your analysis is. So, trust your research and judgments.”
Buffett put it another way: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” That’s exactly the game Mr Gitta is playing—not timing the market but using time in the market to his advantage.
Never follow the wave
Along the way, some doubted Mr Gitta’s foray into Rwanda. They worried about macro risks—rising interest rates, the Congo conflict. All fair concerns.
But Mr Gitta wasn’t chasing a quick buck. He was thinking ten years ahead. In his view, countries with strong infrastructure and functioning institutions offer businesses a solid chance to grow through the noise.
Take MTN Uganda. His team made an 80 percent return—though he sold before the stock could become a full-blown “2-bagger.” Still, he chalks it up as a solid win.
And Stanbic Holdings Uganda? That’s already more than doubled in value, with Mr Gitta bullish on its potential to become a 10-bagger in the long run. It’s a blue-chip, after all—dependable, dividend-paying, and fundamentally strong.
“In the US, companies like Microsoft and Apple can turn into 100-baggers because they sell globally,” he says. “I think Quality Chemical Industries Limited (QCIL), a Ugandan company with a strong African footprint, might also have that potential. But only time will tell.”
As for Bralirwa? He’s cautiously optimistic. It’s not yet a 10-bagger. Not even a 2-bagger. But it’s got the right ingredients—steady growth, healthy dividends, and room to run.
“Let it double first,” he says. “Then we’ll see.”
In the end, Mr Gitta’s investing philosophy is disarmingly simple: don’t chase the crowd—chase value.
“Read the numbers, trust your thesis, and let time do the heavy lifting.”
Or as Charlie Munger, Buffett’s late right-hand man, once put it: “The big money is not in the buying or the selling, but in the waiting.”
