Dr. Edward Kazire is one of the major speakers at the three-day Uganda Investment Symposium organised by Uganda Development Bank and Operation Wealth Creation for the Greater Ankole sub region. This is the third summit in the series of symposiums hosted across the country.
The proprietor of the famed Kazire products hopes to showcase his unique trade, so as to create wider awareness for his current line of products and the future of his company. He says such opportunities are crucial for increasing their market to greater heights.
The publicity Kazire products have generated, the entrepreneur says, is as a result of being effective and efficient in what he does. As I interacted with him on the sidelines of the Uganda Investment Symposium, he had this to say:
“Here at Kakyeka right now in Mbarara City, we are enjoying the investment symposium, which has been organised by Uganda Development Bank (UDB) and Operation Wealth Creation. I am the Execute Director of Kazire Health Products. We are a company which processes its products from Agricultural inputs. All our raw materials are agricultural based,” says Kazire.
“We are grateful because this has been one of the rare and favourable partnerships we have ever had, where industry, university, business community, Operation Wealth creation and Uganda Development Bank (UDB) are coming together to make sure that there is integration of information and to know where one needs the other. There is someone out there who doesn’t know that I need Cactus, and maybe it is simply rotting in their plantation.”
“If I don’t have enough Cactus to run the day and night shift as an industry, I am finished. So we strongly believe that this Investment symposium is going to open opportunities and seal the gap that has been lacking in the investment world,” he adds.
The 42-year-old Ugandan health expert, Diet-therapist, and industrialist, hit the commercial world with health products and beverages that are purely generated from local herbs.
Born in July 1979 to Peter Kazaire and Komushana Olive in Buyanja sub-county, Rukungiri district, Kazire is the first born in the family of eight.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry in 2002, but soon started roaming the streets looking for jobs, office to office. He was however turned down by very many companies including medical establishments.
He recalls that the few that gave him a chance to work with them, he was offered to work as a volunteer.
However, Kazire turned his disappointments into opportunities.
“Disappointments hardened me,” he says.
He returned to his village in Buyanja, having failed to get a job, visibly confused and disappointed.
Kazire however had a bold idea in mind.
After some good months in the village, he decided to turn one of his ideas into reality. He gathered Eucalyptus leaves and others, made a concoction which he named NACOF, to cure cough. The health expert claimed the concoction seemed to completely cure cough than any other exported drugs on the market.
This stimulated his deep research into traditional herbs to solve health problems, something that graduated into the huge entity- Kazire Health Products that has made him attain a celebrity status.
Although he is a distinguished and celebrated industrialist, Dr Kazire is a down to earth, amiable, humorous, easy to get along with person.
He is married to Tukwasibwe Evas. The couple is blessed with four kids; three boys and a girl.
In 2008, Kazire started deep research into health herbal products, something that enabled him to come up with health drinks like Kazire Aloe vera Green tea, Kazire red tonic, Kazire power tonic, Kazire lemon juice and many more.
These are widely known to relieve deficiency disorders, or diseases arising from consumption of certain sugar and fat foods including; diabetes, ulcers, low and high blood pressure, and many others.
Kazire has gained fame, through exporting his products to all East African countries, DR Congo, and some parts of central Africa, which has earned him billions of shillings.
With unwavering faith, vision, hard work and passion, Dr Kazire has cemented a business empire that is now estimated to be over Shs16 billion, making him one of the youngest billionaires in Uganda.
His company, Kazire Herbal Products directly absorbs a work force of more than 200 people and indirectly over 5,000 people.
He is the owner of a huge factory that stands tall in Mbarara city, and produces a wide range of products like Kazire orange tea drink, Kazire Lemon Green Tea Drink, Kazire VIT Fruit Drink, Kazire Aloe Green Tea Drink from aloe vera and Kazire mineral water among others.
Dr Kazire has planted most of the raw materials he uses. He has over 1,300 acres of land where he grows most of the raw materials to his products like lemons, pineapples, oranges, green tea, aloevera and many more species of natural herbs.
He imports some peculiar raw materials from other countries like Tanzania. He recently struck a deal with the local government ministry to supply one million lemon seedlings freely to local farmers.
A chemist worth celebrating, Dr Kazire plans to write a book about his life journey, full of his highs and lows as well as the milestones he has reached thus far.
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