Lawyer, musicians and Vice Chancellor named finalists for BTF’s top private sector honour

Three names from vastly different corners of Uganda’s economy are named for the same trophy, evidence of how broadly the Business Trendsetters Forum defines business leadership.

The Business Trendsetters Forum (BTF) has named three finalists for its Business Trendsetter – Private Sector Award, one of the categories at the 7th Business Trendsetters Forum Expo and Awards Gala, set for 29th July at Sheraton Hotel Kampala.

This year’s gala carries the theme “People, Purpose, and Artificial Intelligence in Business”, a framing that runs through the profiles of all three contenders.

Tony Galandi Kiire, co-founder of Diamond Advocates, is shortlisted for reshaping legal practice through technology. The Ganda Boys, the cultural music duo known for fusing Ugandan folk traditions with European orchestral arrangements, are recognised for pairing artistic success with impactful humanitarian works.

While Prof. Lawrence Muganga, Vice Chancellor of Victoria University, is nominated for what the awards committee calls “modern authentic learning”, an approach that has pulled the university from under 200 students to more than 6,000 in a period of rapid growth.

Taken together, the three finalists illustrate a shift in how the BTF Awards define private-sector innovation. Where earlier editions of business recognition programmes in Uganda have tended to reward balance sheets and market share, this year’s shortlist rewards a mix of technological adoption, cultural export and institutional transformation, suggesting the judging criteria are widening to match how business leadership is actually evolving on the ground.

Law Meets Machine Learning 

Kiire’s nomination centres on his effort to fuse traditional legal service delivery with artificial intelligence, a combination the BTF Awards Committee credits with making legal practice more efficient and expanding public access to legal knowledge.

In a sector where the cost and opacity of legal services have long been cited as barriers for ordinary Ugandans, that framing matters: efficiency gains at a law firm are not simply an internal productivity story but a potential access-to-justice story.

The committee also points to Kiire’s use of the legal profession as a platform for civic education and public sensitisation, positioning lawyers not just as courtroom advocates but as agents of broader social transformation.

His nomination reflects a wider trend of technology reshaping professional services in Uganda and a growing expectation that professionals in fields like law contribute to public understanding, not only private clients.

Cultural Entrepreneurship 

The Ganda Boys’ recognition rests on a different kind of value creation. The duo has built an international following by blending Ugandan folk idioms with European orchestral and percussive arrangements, a sound the committee describes as distinctive enough to resonate both locally and abroad.

That cross-cultural appeal has translated into commercial reach for Ugandan music beyond the domestic market, a persistent challenge for the country’s creative industries.

What appears to have tipped the group into award contention, however, is what they have done with that platform. They have channelled their success into support for education, healthcare and refugee initiatives.

Their nomination signals that the BTF Awards Committee is treating cultural entrepreneurs as legitimate private-sector actors measured not only by streaming numbers or ticket sales but also by the social investment their success enables.

Rebuilding University Education

Muganga’s case is arguably the most numbers-driven of the three. Under his leadership, Victoria University has grown from fewer than 200 students to more than 6,000, alongside an estimated graduate employment rate of 85 percent, a figure the committee highlights as evidence that the university’s teaching model is producing job-ready graduates rather than credentials alone.

Central to that model is what Muganga calls “authentic adult learning”, embedding artificial intelligence and immersive technologies into teaching while deepening ties between the university and industry employers.

In a labour market where graduate unemployment remains a persistent policy concern in Uganda, an institution that can point to an 85 percent employment rate is making a claim that goes well beyond campus walls — it is a claim about how higher education should be measured going forward.

None of the three finalists competed on conventional financial metrics – revenue growth, market capitalisation or profit margins are absent from the committee’s rationale for all three.

Instead, each nomination leans on a different proxy for impact: expanded access (Kiire), social reinvestment (The Ganda Boys), and employability outcomes (Muganga).

That choice of proxies is itself a statement from the BTF’s Awards Committee Chair Yvonne Mpanga, a business development consultant who believes private-sector leadership is headed – toward technology adoption, social accountability and measurable community outcomes, rather than scale alone.

The trio will be recognised on 29th July, as evidence that Uganda’s private-sector recognition culture is being pulled in vast directions that Yvonne Mpanga consisers Trendy, Transcendent and Transferable.

The Business Trendsetter – Private Sector Award is one of several flagship categories at this year’s gala, part of the broader Business Trendsetters Foundation Awards for 2026, which recognise individuals and organisations shaping Uganda’s business landscape.