Kampala, Uganda - For Barbara Mulwana, leadership is not simply about inheriting a family business. It is about transforming legacy into a platform for growth, opportunity and regional competitiveness.
As Executive Director of Nice House of Plastics and a Director across the Mulwana Group of Companies, Barbara is part of a new generation of women leaders reshaping East Africa’s industrial landscape. Her responsibilities span businesses in manufacturing, energy, dairy and real estate, placing her at the intersection of established enterprise and an increasingly competitive regional market.
The Mulwana Group’s industrial journey stretches back more than five decades. Today, its businesses include Uganda Batteries Limited, Nice House of Plastics and Jesa Farm Dairy, operating across manufacturing, environmental services and agribusiness. For Barbara, taking on leadership means preserving the strengths of the past while embracing the demands of the future.
“Legacy is not something you preserve by standing still. You preserve it by making it stronger, more efficient, and more inclusive.” She observes.
Manufacturing that drives jobs and value chains
At Nice House of Plastics, Barbara’s leadership has focused on product development, manufacturing efficiency and market expansion. Under her stewardship, household plastic products are positioned not merely as consumer goods, but as an important component of domestic manufacturing, helping reduce import dependence and sustain livelihoods across the region.
The economic footprint of the Mulwana Group is significant. Its core enterprises collectively generate substantial revenues, employ more than 900 workers and engage over 500 suppliers, while supporting a distribution network of more than 900,000 retailers and resellers across Uganda and the wider region.
Each business contributes to the wider industrial ecosystem. Nice House of Plastics supports local production and import substitution; Uganda Batteries Limited combines manufacturing with battery recycling and trade-in initiatives; while Jesa Farm Dairy strengthens agricultural value chains by working with smallholder farmers and supporting school milk and nutrition programmes. For Barbara, economic growth must go hand in hand with environmental responsibility and community wellbeing.
“Industry cannot succeed in isolation. It succeeds when the communities around it are healthy, skilled, and economically active.” she says.
Championing regional integration
Barbara’s vision extends beyond the performance of individual companies. She sees regional integration through the East African Community (EAC) as critical to building industries capable of competing on a global scale. With the EAC region offering access to a regional market of more than 300 million people, she believes scale is essential to developing competitive manufacturing industries.
“Scale is everything. You cannot build strong manufacturing industries for five million or ten million people. You build them for regions.” she says with a smile.
But unlocking this potential, she argues, requires practical reforms that make it easier and less costly for businesses to trade across borders.
Among her priorities are more efficient transport corridors linking ports to inland production centres, harmonised standards and the systematic removal of non-tariff barriers. High freight costs and administrative delays, she notes, can undermine the competitiveness of regional manufacturers.
“If we want African products to compete, we must make it cheaper and faster to move goods within Africa than to import them from outside.” She notes.
Women leadership as a driver of competitiveness
As a woman leading in traditionally male-dominated industrial sectors, Barbara is equally passionate about creating opportunities for women. She rejects the idea that women should be included as a matter of representation alone. Instead, she views women’s participation as an essential component of productivity, talent development and competitiveness. Under her leadership, women occupy positions across management, production and technical functions within the Mulwana Group.
Her recognition as an East African Woman in Trade Champion under LIFTED - a project jointly co-financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU), has further amplified her voice as an advocate for women’s economic empowerment and regional industrial development.
For Barbara, visibility carries a responsibility to inspire others and demonstrate what is possible.
“When young girls see people who look like them in leadership, it expands what they believe is possible.” She points out.
Looking ahead, Barbara sees her legacy not simply in the growth of the companies she leads, but in the opportunities created for future generations. Her vision combines industrial expansion with investment in efficiency, environmental sustainability and workforce development. She also emphasises education, health, dignity, skills development and youth employment as essential foundations for a resilient and competitive industrial workforce.
Achieving this vision, she believes, requires collaboration among government, business and communities.
“No single actor can do this alone. But together, we can build industries that are locally rooted and globally competitive.” She added.
Through her stewardship of the Mulwana Group, Barbara Mulwana demonstrates how women’s leadership can contribute to manufacturing growth, environmental responsibility, employment and regional integration.
Her story reflects a broader opportunity for East Africa: to move beyond being primarily a consumer market and build a region recognised as a competitive production hub. For Barbara, true legacy lies not only in what is built, but in what is made possible for others.
“I want to leave behind a stronger, more inclusive business ecosystem. That’s how we’ll know we succeeded.” Barbara re-emphasizes.
From factory floors to boardrooms, and from Kampala to EAC trade summits, Barbara Mulwana stands out as a symbol of continuity, courage, and conviction, a woman proving that true leadership is not inherited but renewed, generation after generation.