DT Bags

Inspired by women groups during her work in Rwanda, Teddy Nsereko realized she also wanted her own business. The question was what she would trade. Down Town Bags is now Uganda’s main supplier of school bags. 

In a country where about 55% of the population is younger than twenty and 45% of the population is even younger than 14 years of age, school bags are more than a niche market. In the early noughties Teddy Nsereko saw this gap in the market when she was contemplating starting her own business when her children were small.

“As a program monitor working for a large project in Rwanda, I had seen women who started a small business became something,” recalls Nsereko. “I wanted to be part of 
that.” When she returned to Uganda and had small children, her inclination, however, was to apply for a job after her leave. But in conversations with her husband, they figured out that it would be better for a more financially secure 
future if she set up a business. 

Her husband, who now runs his own transport company, lent her USD 10,000 to get started. “You don’t build a Down Town Bags (DT Bags) when you’re in employment,” the tradeswoman says in her office in a market building one street away from Kampala’s bustling downtown market area. Stemming from a trading family, she knew the trading business. Both her mother and father had their own shop. 

Finding your niche
In 1997 the Ugandan government launched universal primary education. By 2007 secondary schools were also free. Nsereko: “All children can go to school for free. And every year they come for a new bag.” 

Not just in Uganda, but also in the region. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is an important market for DT Bags, and it has the added advantage that the start of the Congolese school year is in September, while in Uganda  the new school year begins in January. 

She adds two other advantages to her business: “It is not capital intensive, and bags don’t have an expiry date.” At the time, the Chinese market was also opening up, allowing Nsereko to buy quality bags at affordable prices. 

Focus is key to success
She started as a small-scale wholesaler. Now she has one shop for the wholesale of all kinds of (school) bags and suitcases, and one shop selling handbags. In the future  
she hopes to open her own local workshop to produce certain bags. 

“When I’m in China, I’m feeling very tempted to buy cameras or stationery, but focus is the key to my success,” says Nsereko. This is also what she tells the women who see her as a role model and seek her advice. “Do not be distracted. Be comfortable with what it is that you are doing and stick to what you know but take it to a higher level. Then there is no reason you do not succeed.”

From school bags DT Bags expanded into conference, laptop, weekend, and handbags, rucksacks, suitcases and so on. “Everybody needs a bag at some point in time,” smiles the female founder, who now employs 45 full-time staff of 
which one-third are younger than 24 years.

XSML provided debt for working capital  in 2022 and another USD 500,000 in 2023 to finance an exclusive contract with a manufacturer.