Tugume’s Inspire Africa Launches Inaugural Coffee Products Today

Inspire Africa Group (IAG) is holding the official launch of its inaugural coffee products at the Africa Coffee Park in Rwashamaire, Ntungamo District, on Wednesday, 1st October 2025, as the world marks International Coffee Day.

The event will be presided over by the Chief Justice of Uganda, His Lordship Hon. Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo, and will be graced by distinguished leaders including Hon. Monica Musenero, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Hon. Ruth Nankabirwa, Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Hon. Milly Babirye Babalanda, Minister for the Presidency, Hon. Bwino Kyakulaga, Minister of State for Agriculture among others dignitaries.

During the ceremony, Inspire Africa Group will unveil a range of high-value coffee innovations including: Inspire Africa Drip Coffee; Inspire Africa Coffee Capsules; Inspire Africa Ground Coffee; and Inspire Africa Roast Coffee.

After the launch, on the 7th October 2025, President Yoweri Museveni and his Somali counterpart, H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will flag off the first consignment of IAG coffee products for export to Somalia during the Uganda–Somalia Business Summit at Mestil Hotel, Kampala.

The Africa Coffee Park in Ntungamo, a 150-acre state-of-the-art hub, is set to become the largest coffee processing and value-addition centre in Eastern Africa.

The Park will use freeze-dry technology to produce refined instant coffee, coffee beauty products, and coffee energy drinks. It will also host a Convention Centre, Coffee Academy, Exhibition Centre, and an IT Park — all designed to power Uganda’s industrialisation and coffee tourism agenda.

The CEO of Inspire Africa Group Nelson Tugume is optimistic that his Grand Plan for the Coffee industry will reverse the unfair trade advantage that countries in Africa find themselves in where they are perpetually trapped into merely producing raw output for Western industries.

He points out that the global coffee industry is valued at USD 460 billion, but Africa earns only USD 2.5 billion. The USD 2.5 billion is just a buy-off of the raw material form (green bean), which accounts for only 12% of the World’s production.

“A kilogramme of green bean coffee of good quality may go for USD 2.5. The same quantity of coffee roasted, ground and packaged may go for USD 40. This is where there is a massive haemorrhage of money from the Global South to the Global North. It is not only the loss of money per kilogramme. It is also the loss of jobs. If you take the whole value chain of raw materials from agriculture, minerals, forest products, etc., the loss to Africa is massive.” Tugume wrote in an Op-ed last week.

Tugume’s mission is to grow our coffee revenue from the current USD 1 billion to USD 5 billion in five years. USD 4 billion he says will be raised through coffee exports, and USD 1 billion from coffee tourism.

He has dubbed this grand plan the Africa Renaissance Mission.Tugume points out that the Renaissance Mission is set to employ tourism as a Launchpad to increase the value of Uganda coffee export revenue for the sustainable growth of the coffee sector.

With ground-breaking events like Coffee marathon, Africa Coffee Festival, Coffee Concerts, Business Forums, Barista Competitions and Coffee DJ shows, IAG hopes to grow tourist numbers from the current 704,012 to 6,000,000.

Tugume predicts that coffee consumers will visit Uganda and buy coffee to carry back with them to their countries. They will eventually demand stores in their countries to stock Ugandan coffee. This will introduce Uganda coffee brands onto the shelves of other countries.