Four years ago Ugandan communications specialist Siki Kigongo founded Amagara Skincare, a manufacturer of natural personal-care products. The business was motivated by her experiences while living in the UK. During holidays she would bring home beauty products as gifts.
“Friends and family were always delighted, but I started wondering why we had to bring these products from abroad, yet Uganda has all the raw materials needed to make high-quality cosmetics and beauty products.”
Kigongo enlisted the help of local scientists to develop products made from the extracts of fruits, vegetables and other plant materials. Today Amagara offers body lotions, body butters, hand creams, shower gels and hand wash.
The products are all manufactured at the Uganda Industrial Research Institute in Kampala, but some of the packaging is sourced from China.
“Our target customers are people aged between 25 and 45 who don’t necessarily have a big budget but want to look their best and take good care of their skin. It tends to be people in the middle to upper-class income bracket who are a bit more exposed. A few years ago this was a very small demographic, but the numbers are growing gradually,” says Kigongo.
