By Victor Turinawe
Business operators at Uganda Christian University (UCU), Mukono Campus, say the prolonged students’ holidays following the 2026 Uganda General Elections have affected their businesses.
Milly Treasure, a caretaker at the UCU Main Canteen, says, “We budgeted and planned for the semester before the 7th of January this year, but of course, that can happen in business. Business is not consistent; you have to expect change because anything can happen.”
Like other business operators, Treasure had prepared for the student community, many of whom had reported on 7 January 2026 for the Easter Semester.
However, following the post-election period, the Government of Uganda, through the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) issued new guidelines directing all education stakeholders and institutions to officially resume the academic year on February 10th.
Treasure acknowledges that the changes were beyond the university’s control and so they have to wait it out.
To cope with the few numbers, she says they have adjusted wages temporarily.
“Because we are not as fixed and busy as when the students are here, we negotiated with our workers and reduced their wages according to what is happening now. When the semester begins fully, then we can take them back to their normal wages,” she explained, adding that businesses still had an obligation to serve students who had already paid for meals.
“For those students who are already here and have paid, we have to cater for them. It’s not their fault, they still have to eat,” Treasure noted.
Ritah Nakato, a cashier at Ebenezer Restaurant shared that the reduced student numbers had significantly affected profits.
“The profits we are earning now are not the same as when the students were here. There is a very big difference,” she said and noted that the situation caught many business owners unprepared.
However, what has helped them is their model of buying supplies based on daily demand.
“We don’t stock food. We purchase according to demand and prefer fresh deliveries every morning. That helped us so much,” Nakato said.
She also said they introduced shifts for the workers since they are not as busy.
Barbra Namome, a cashier at Joy Canteen, said their situation was eased by the fact that the business had not fully stocked before the semester.
“We had not stocked food because we were still building… so we had not stocked,” Namome said.
This allowed them to plan based on the current number of customers.
Namome also noted that staffing levels had been reduced during the election period.
Despite the challenges however, the business operators remain hopeful that normal operations will resume once the semester fully stabilises, allowing them to recover from the post-election disruptions.
