African Queen Limited

In the late 80s, Sophie Nantongo, then in her early 20s set up a cosmetics shop in Makindye, a Kampala suburb. According to a friend, she was coming out of an abusive relationship and wanted to do something that would give her financial independence. The business took off well and in a short time she was regularly taking the bus to Kenya to source and buy cosmetic products. By 1993, the business had expanded exponentially and she decided to found African Queen (AQ) Limited. In the beginning AQ used to distribute cosmetics to dealers in Kikuubo but when she realized…