By Arajabu Wampula,
MBALE
In a country where unemployment has become normal, and pumpkins, delicious round orange-yellow fruit, were being put to waste, emerged a young entrepreneur who chose to add value to it, while prioritizing quality and standards.
Fatuma Namutosi, the visionary founder of ByEffe Foods Company Ltd, and a graduate of Social Science from Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) is championing women in business and serving quality products to the community.
The firm derives its name from the Lugisu word ByEffe, literally meaning “Ours”
In October 2015, Namutosi registered the enterprise as a health food processing company, producing nutritious food products using pumpkins as the main ingredient with other blended cereals and grains.
According to her, the products target children aged six months and above, and breastfeeding mothers since they need more nutritious products for their health.
She noted that the passion for agriculture is already conflicted with low farm gate prices, limited market access, price fluctuation and expensive farm inputs among others.
Quality
As part of her first priority, ByEffe, she says considers quality assurance during productions and processing.
“I acquired a valid certificate of certification by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) with a Q-mark along with permit number 14239-0208-0059/0116 to produce porridge composite flour under the standards of US EAS 782:2019,” she said.
Victoria Namutebi, the spokesperson of the UNBS shares the dangers of selling substandard products which do not bear the Q-mark from the UNBS
“…selling substandard products and counterfeits are punishable by the law and we urge the public to only put certified products in the market. It’s okay to make products and use them yourself but it’s wrong to distribute them without being certified by the Bureau,” she said
Additionally, Pius Onyala,the UNBS laboratory analyst supplements that, “from the time of laboratory testing,a certification permit is given and that’s when the bureau begins it’s periodic timing until the eruption of 12 months so the company is then asked to renew the certification.”
Namutebi further urges traders and entrepreneurs to emulate Namutosi and adhere to the local and international standards during the production processes in order to improve the quality of the final products with a view that when the standards are not adhered to, the public or consumers, the government and the business community shall all negatively be affected.
The opportunity Namutosi seized
Born into a humble family in Shananda village, Bungokho-Mutoto in Mbale District, eastern Uganda, Namutosi says life was challenging, but she manoeuvred through the hardships to break through and make ends meet. The resilient entrepreneur said that, in a community of over 1,000 people, most of them peasants relying on subsistence farming, she identified both the opportunities and challenges, and turned to value addition as a solution.
Despite benefits of the Parish Development Model, the multi-billion government poverty alleviation program aimed at transforming 39% of the households from subsistence to money economy, Namutosi says the impact is not yet felt, calling for more alternatives for improved household income.
“Women in my community run the households, they buy food, pay bills, care for the children and even pay school fees while the men brag about the success that comes from the hard work the women do,” said Namutosi.
The dream built from a far
As a firstborn in a family of seven children, Namutosi said her birth was met with cultural and gender stereotypes which claim that girls bring misfortunes to homes. She recounts how she was first denied her rights to access education because of her female gender.
A determined, genius and ambitious Namutosi went on to challenge these huddles and completed her studies with a sole mission of resolving to rescue women in her community. This was after one of her brothers enrolled her for further studies. She added that further financial support would be obtained from a garden of rice she and her mother owned. But, the amount of effort they put into developing the crop was always significantly more than the financial yield.
After her graduation in Social Science from IUIU, Namutosi first worked as a news anchor at the then Step Television in Mbale, from where she threw the towels into farming.
“I conducted research and discovered pumpkins were long-forgotten crops, easy to grow and would give higher income than other crops,” Namutosi explained.
Despite inadequate market for the fruit, Namutosi says value addition was the only option she thought would encourage local consumption of the crop, and that’s how her journey into food processing was birthed.
“Since then Byeffe has launched 8 pumpkin products ranging four different Blends of pumpkin porridge flour, Pumpkin seed snacks, pumpkin seed oil , dry pumpkin leaves among others,”
Impact
Through partnerships with national and international development partners, Byeffe has enrolled over 5000 youth farmers into pumpkin production. The numbers are expected to grow while the company increases their processing capacity.
Situated in Mbale City, ByEffe supplies products in neighbouring cities like Kampala, Jinja, Soroti and surrounding areas in Uganda.
With the recent progress,
Byeffe Foods enhanced its processing capabilities by installing a new stainless steel grain roaster, which significantly improved the efficiency in production in May 2024. In 2025, at the International Women’s Day celebration at Namwenula Primary School in Bumasikye Sub-county, Mbale district, the company involved in community engagement and nutrition where it serve its ready-to-eat porridge and composite flour among other community service activities at St. Dennis Namatala, later the same year.
To ensure that the production is smooth and farmers are not affected, the participating farmers are guided on the planting season with guidance from the Uganda Meteorological Services Department of the Ministry of Water and Environment so that they don’t incur losses and this officials say have been of help to the farmers.
Bob Alex Ogwang, the Commissioner in charge of the Meteorological Services Department, which provides reliable weather and climate information to support decision-making in agriculture, water management, disaster preparedness and national planning, says that accurate forecasts have really helped agriculture to thrive.
He said, “Through accurate forecasting, data monitoring and research, we enhance resilience to climate risks and support socio-economic development. We value collaboration with stakeholders in advancing early warning systems and protecting lives and livelihoods.”
What others say
Ritah Nabukwasi, a business woman selling clothes in Kikindu market in Mbale city hereby testifies the outcome and the fruitfulness of Byeffe products, she says that she buys well packed porridge made from Byeffe porridge flour from a porridge hawker almost every evening of some days at one thousand Ugandan shillings.
“The porridge is good,the taste and its odours are so sweet,when you are eating that porridge,it’s thick on the tongue and as an expecting mother,I become energetic and feel its appetite when eating it,” she said.
