Ever since the 2019 African Cup of Nations kicked off on 21 June in Cairo, many businesses have seen a huge rise in sales hence huge profits.
According to a survey that was conducted by East African Business Week around Kampala City, Bar owners, Pay TV Decoder sellers and retailers and selling Television sets especially flat screens have reported serious increments in sales.
Robinah Nalunga, who deals in DSTV decoders on Market Street in Kampala said sales in decoders especially for GOTV have jumped by over 100% per day.
“Without this tournament, decoder sales have been very low. You could sell 1 or 2 decoders on a day but with AFCON and since many of our competitors do not have telecasting rights, there has been a huge jump in GOTV and DSTV decoder sales. We can sell 20 to 30 a day, making over 2 million shillings a day,” said Nalunga.
Nalunga says despite a huge jump in sales, some customers who purchase a full kit, return it claiming that its faulty. This becomes a setback in our sales.
She also lauded the ongoing promotions and advertisement on different media platforms saying it has also helped them in realizing the sales increment.
“In these promotions, customers are given gifts like T-shirts, water bottles and umbrellas after buying a Tool Kit,” notes Nalunga.
“Remember even the reduction in our prices of DSTV and GOTV Tool Kits has had a huge impact.”
A dealer in jerseys who didn’t want his name to be disclosed said sales in jerseys, especially for Uganda Cranes have not received huge sales.
“Maybe as Uganda Cranes continues to perform better in the tournament, people will come to buy the jerseys but at the moment, the sales are still low,” said a Trader who preferred anonymity.
However, others have blamed their low sales on the rainy season. “Because of the unending rains, many people opt to watch matches in the comfort of their homes since it’s also shown on Uganda Broadcasting Corporation and Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.
Benson Mucunguzi the Heads of Distributions and Sales Coca-Cola and also a Nile Breweries Supplier noted that beer companies are making some money especially in bars where the AFCON is showed live.
He adds that despite Beer sales being good, the rainy season has not done any favour to them especially in the sale of cold soft drinks.
“When there are too many rains as they are now, soft drinks don’t move a lot,” he adds.
Beer sellers have reaped big from AFCON as a number of revellers throng their places to enjoy the matches.
Jersey sellers are optimistic that as the game’s progress, their sales will go up as fans will expectedly start to buy kits in large numbers.
BY GEORGE PIWANG
