Emma Naluyima


Emma Naluyima is a Ugandan veterinarian, urban farmer, businesswoman, elementary school educator and animal & crop farming instructor. It is calculated that she earns approximately US$100,000 annually from her farm situated on, in Bwerenga, Wakiso District, Uganda.

Early life and education

Naluyima was born circa 1980 in Entebbe, Uganda. Her father, Chris Kikwabanga, was an airline pilot and her mother, Margaret Nanziri, was a banker. Naluyima attended Stella Maris Primary School in Nkokonjeru, in Buikwe District. For her O-Level and A-Level studies, she attended Maryhill High School in the city of Mbarara. She was then admitted to Makerere University, Uganda's largest and oldest public university, graduating with a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine degree. Later, she was awarded a Master of Health Services Research in Veterinary Medicine, by Makerere University.

Career

When Naluyima graduated with her BVM degree in 2004, the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Databank, in Entebbe, offered her a full-time job, complete with a government house. After two years at Nagric, she resigned from the salaried job, in August 2006 and started her first piggery, on a small family plot of land, with USh2 million of borrowed money. That piggery paid for her master's degree. In 2010, she married Ssalongo Washington Mugerwa, a school teacher. They bought and Naluyima relocated her ten pigs to their new home.

Investments

Her current portfolio includes
a plantation of matooke and vegetables, including tomatoes, spinach, cucumber, potatoes and greens. A piggery of approximately 30 Camborough pigs. Entebbe Animal Care Centre, a veterinary clinic. An elementary school with approximately 300 students and 20 teachers.
A snail farm where snail glue is sold to cosmetic manufacturers. She also keeps about one dozen dairy cows, a flock of chickens and four above-ground plastic fishponds stocked with tilapia and catfish. Tours of her farm cost USh100,000 per head. She calls her farm One Acre Limited.

Awards

In September 2019, Emma Naluyima was a joint winner of the 2019 Africa Food Prize. Her joint winner was Baba Dioum of Senegal. The two shared a US$100,000 cash prize.

Family

Emma Naluyima is married to Ssalongo Washington Mugerwa with whom she has four children, including a set of twin-firstborn daughters, born circa 2011.