Zalwango is the founder and CEO of V Interiors Limited, a commercial carpentry and interior design firm. Her attention to detail in the carpentry business has thrust her into the limelight as a creative business personality. On her endless list of corporate clients are high-end hotels.
As Samuel Muhindo writes, there’s nothing that can stop Zalwango from shining more. Outside the bustle and hustle of Kampala in Namusera, Wakiso district is the V Interiors Limited factory and warehouse. They are surrounded by an forest of eucalyptus trees sitting on three acres of land.
From the entrance, a carpentry workshop is the last thing that one can imagine. The only sounds that you hear as you walk through the compound are the tweeting birds and the running saws.
Zalwango works with 35 permanent staff and approximately another 25 others on a short-term basis. This number, Zalwango said, increases in instances when there are several orders for furniture. Unlike your usual carpentry workshop, more women than men are employed at the establishment.
“It is only women who do the finishing on all the furniture. They pay attention to detail,” Zalwango said.
Unlike a normal CEO’s office, Zalwango’s is dotted with simplicity. Behind her seat are three photos of Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and renowned businessman James Mulwana.
“Each of those photos tells my story. I met Mulwana around 2010. My business was beside Nice House of Plastics. He initially wanted to buy the premises on which the business was located so that he could expand his factory. When I interacted with him, he gave me a grace period of five years. He told me he would come and buy the premises in which I was operating if I didn’t succeed. He became a friend of my business, Awaka, in which I was a shareholder. He used to check on me almost weekly. He believed in my story. Mulwana said I reminded him of his younger self. I always looked up to his work ethic and humility for a man who had built an empire.”
“Every time I go through a challenge, I look up to Mandela and wonder what he would do in my position. For Obama, I won a $3,000 bet placed with my German boss on the possibility of Obama being elected as president of the USA. I am also a beneficiary of his young leaders’ Washington fellowship program”.
WHO IS ZALWANGO?
Zalwango was born 40 years ago to Sam Mulondo and Rachel Nakijoba. “Kabaka Mutebi is my first cousin but that didn’t exonerate me from coming face to face with the real world. My parents had me at a very young age.
My mother had me at 14 when she was in P.7. My father was 19. I am their firstborn. My mother remarried, and she had four other children. My dad had one child. I grew up with my stepdad, and he was the most amazing person that I found,” she said.
Growing up, Zalwango attended Hormisdallen PS for primary, East High School, Ntinda for O and A-level school before proceeding for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Manipal Institute of Management in India.
In between, Zalwango completed a diploma in carpentry and design. “It didn’t dawn on me that I liked carpentry. It came to me because I wanted to do something with my hands. The hardware classes were my best. India brought out my creativity. There were a lot of women and men in India doing a lot of things with their hands. While growing up, I was the tool girl for my grandfather, Omulangira Richard Nakibinge. He was a landscaper. My other grandfather, Omulangira Kimbugwe, used to do upholstery. There was no way I could have avoided using my hands. It came naturally,” she said.
Upon her return to Uganda in 2007, Zalwango said it took approximately three years for her to find stability.
“When I would get overwhelmed, Omulangira Nakibinge would tell me that the reign of Kabaka Mutebi expected her princesses to eat from their sweat. That is how we are here today; I have never woken up any morning to sell this business. It sells itself. I value quality work, and that is why I have gone this far,” she said.
For her first job, the single mother of two girls worked with Corporate Center, a German company that was providing virtual space in Uganda. After three years, Zalwango joined Go Lotto as a public affairs manager.
“During this time, I was also working part-time with our Awaka furniture center to improve my carpentry skills. I was earning Shs 7m,” she said.
“Around 2014, Go Lotto offered to transfer me to Thailand but I opted to resign to fully concentrate on building Awaka. I was following my heart. Everyone was shocked at how I could turn down an all-expenses-paid job with a Shs 12 million salary. I looked mad. I had to go and do carpentry. I joined Awaka with a 10 per cent shareholding. My salary dropped to Shs 1m.”
As the business grew, Zalwango’s salary also increased. When her other partners needed to step out of the business, she decided to buy their shareholding.
“My business was growing. I realized that I needed more capital for the business. I got a partner to buy a 50 per cent stake in the company. Unknowingly, I had never valued my business. I had given them more than they had paid for. I later travelled to the USA in 2015 for the Young African Leadership Institute. I had secured a major business breakthrough in the American market,” she said.
“When I returned to Uganda, my partner made several attempts on my life. He wanted to buy all my shares in the business. After several months of fighting, I decided to give up on the business. I walked out without a penny. At the same time, my family was falling apart. For my sanity, I chose my life and separated from my husband. The marriage had become toxic. I took a break from everyone for a while, until 2016. I had got a temporary contact, which I used to communicate with my closest people.”
RISE OF V INTERIORS
In 2016, Zalwango opened the doors of V Interiors to her clients again, but in a smaller area.
“I had reached rock bottom, and I had to rise from the ashes. When I was at Awaka, some customers, like Amos Wekesa, became friends. He is the first person who gave me the money (Shs 700,000) to open my workshop in Kyebando. The business kept growing as we moved on. By 2020, the need for a wider working area had arisen. That is how we relocated to this place. Since we work on orders, our customers can now find us. The business has grown so much that we have now entered the American market,” she said.
On the sidelines, Zalwango is currently running a Fundi Women program that is aimed at skilling women in the carpentry business.
She added, “To pay back for the trees, we are running an ambitious one million tree initiative to replace the lost trees. We hope that we shall be using softwood in the next five years.”
When she is not at the workshop, Zalwango is at the American Chamber of Commerce of Uganda, where she works as the secretary general.
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