Nicholas Katushabe: From impacting businesses to scooping Founder of the Year Award

At the recently held edition of the FOYA awards, on July 26, at Simba Corp Aspire Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, Ugandan entrepreneur, author and founder of NBK Premier Solutions, a consultancy firm, was crowned as overall Founder of the Year.

Competing against 14 other nominees from across Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, in the same category, Katushabe says, improving the quality of his company’s consultancy work with emphasis on various Small and Medium Enterprises, played a big role in enabling him to bring the award home.

“The process, which started in January, this year, has been such a tedious one, with not only having to rely on the 60% votes from the public, but also satisfying the panel of judges, whose vote constitutes 40%,” said Katushabe

For a nominee to emerge as Founder of the Year, their company must have hit the key requisites of excellence, innovation and impact in the region, something Katushabe says, “we have been able to build this over a period of years, with our company working with clients and partners from Kenya as well. With the number of businesses we have helped and people we have impacted over the years, changing mind sets about investment decisions, I believe we were deserved winners of ultimate category at the FOYA awards,”

This year’s edition of the FOYA Awards was organised under theme “Evolve”, which, according to the organisers, encourages young entrepreneurs to lead Africa’s progress towards prosperity through innovation, sustainability, and technological advancement.

“It challenges entrepreneurs to embrace innovation, push beyond boundaries, and catalyze sustainable and inclusive economic development,” said FOYA organisers on their website

The annual award attracts entrepreneurs and innovators from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Over the years, however, the award has grown to include participants from various countries. Nominees are selected based on their company’s work over the years that exudes excellence, innovation and impact in the region.

The award relies on both the public and judge panel to decide on the winners. Other Ugandans who also won awards in the different categories include; Catherine Kabarangira, Nsimire Aston, Jacob Isaac Luwo and Angella Babirye.

Speaking about the significance of the award to him as an entrepreneur and investment coach, Katushabe intimated that every winner of the FOYA awards is subsequently added to the business network of founders across Africa, and “this is a great opportunity to network and spread wings across boarders,” he says

“I’m overjoyed with this award because, for me, it is a reminder that whatever we do, the world is listening and is aware. This award is also a propeller for us to put in more work to impact the world” said Katushabe upon receiving his award in Nairobi

In the same category, Trizah Kainika from Kenya emerged as 2nd runners up, while Uganda’s Catherine Kabarangira came second to Katushabe.

Katushabe’s consultancy journey thus far

Katushabe founded NBK Premier Solutions Ltd, in  2016, in a small office space at Energy Centre, in the busy business area of downtown Kampala.

“Before starting a consultancy firm, I was an avid entrepreneur who used to start up small businesses, most of which would fail because wrong investment decisions. It was because of the accumulated frustration, therefore, that I got together with a team of colleagues to start up NBK Premier Solutions, to basically SMEs to devise better investment solutions, and also train them on how to attract and retain customers, in order to realise sustainability of their businesses,” Katushabe says

He adds that he started with micro businesses that make an annual turnover of less than sh100m, and would later move on to support businesses with a turnover of up to sh300m.

Because of the growth in the quality of his services, he says, the company started attracting cross-border companies and offering the same services, especially those who had interest in investing in Uganda, but lacked the best advice on how to go about it.

“We are a business management and investment consultancy firm based in Kampala and East Africa, working with businesses and investors to manage successful plans, projects and business strategies for profit and impact,” Katushabe says

He boasts of having impacted dozens of long-term investments in and out of Uganda, coupled with some significant work done with MSMEs businesses, by helping them put together proper investment and management strategies.