Wearing a sleek black Clifton top, a matching skirt, and black heels, Winfred Phiona Adong walked into Hotel Africana’s Sezibwa Hall with quiet confidence.
When she spoke, her calm and articulate tone reflected the ease of someone well-acquainted with boardrooms and negotiation tables.
Adong was among the few invited customers at Equity Bank’s Customer Service Week Stakeholder Breakfast, held at Hotel Africana on October 7, 2025.
The engagement, themed “Listening to the Sound of the River,” was a focused group discussion designed to strengthen trust and relationships while gathering customer feedback.
Adong — the proprietor of Ayoma Manufacturing and Construction Company, based in Soroti District — attended the event seeking ways to further broaden her dream of “empowering struggling women, especially single mothers, and uplifting the entire community,” she says.
That dream began three years ago when she quit her sales job at a corporate firm in Kampala.
“I’m a very ambitious person,” she says with a smile. “I felt it was time to relocate and invest my intellectual capacity elsewhere. So, I decided to venture into creating a manufacturing solution enterprise.”
Describing herself as “someone who lives and breathes adventure,” Adong boldly ventured into the construction industry — a field often dominated by men.
“Many women fear entering male-dominated businesses, but I wasn’t one of them,” she adds confidently.
After several unsuccessful attempts to secure funding from other financial institutions, Adong turned to Equity Bank — and this time, she was given the green light.
She accessed a UGX 300 million loan, which she says became the cornerstone of her success.
“Equity made my start-up journey very smooth. They didn’t just give me money — they offered a good repayment period, capacity building, and financial literacy training. All that helped shape my company into what it is today,” Adong explains.
With that support, Ayoma Manufacturing and Construction Company was officially established in January 2025. Since then, the company has completed several major projects, including the construction of state-of-the-art waterborne toilets at Queen Elizabeth National Park and the new staff accommodation quarters at Mount Elgon National Park.
Building on this success, Adong diversified her business by launching Ayoma Toilet Paper Industry Ltd.
“Everyone needs toilet paper,” she laughs. “So, after discussions with my business partners, we decided to venture into that field and later expand into other stationery products.”
However, the new venture required significant investment.
“We needed about $330,000 in capital, which isn’t easy to access. But just like before, Equity Bank was there to hold my hand,” she shares.
Through Contract Financing, the bank supported her in mobilizing raw materials such as pulpwood, easing her entry into the market.
Claver Serumaga, Executive Director of Equity Bank, explained the bank’s commitment to customers like Adong:
“We are reorganizing how we engage with our customers, following up on their progress, providing additional capacity support, because as they grow, we also grow.”
Currently, Ayoma Manufacturing is projecting a tenfold growth, expanding its product line to include all forms of stationery and adopting an automated production line.
Its toilet paper distribution has already reached Lira, Gulu, Mbale, and Jinja, with plans to expand to Kampala soon.
“I started small, but now I’m slowly changing lives,” Adong says proudly. “Most of my casual employees are single mothers, and this work helps them earn an income and support their families.”
Her final appeal is to the Government of Uganda to consider tax holidays for indigenous manufacturers, which she believes would enable more local entrepreneurs to grow and strengthen Uganda’s industrial base.
