Paul Matovu

Founder and Managing Director

He has previously served in various capacities in the fields of agricultural extension, community livelihood programs and social enterprise leadership. He is a Laureate Global Fellow and an Alumni of the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovations. In 2021, he was recognized among Africa's top innovators and inventors by Forbes.

Vertical & Micro Gardening specializes in designing farming innovations and interventions for communities in land-constrained locations. Mostly, VMG is known for its two unique products viz. The Vertical Farm and Gimusa Organic Gardening Soil. Shortly stated, VMG seeks to become the leading innovator in the urban farming sector.

PROBLEM

It is estimated that by 2050, more than 50% of the world population will leave in urban areas and this will require more food production. With this increase, there are expected to be more food losses and agricultural by-products. Moreover, at the moment, Kampala Capital City can only collect 40%of all the waste generated in the city. To address this food-waste nexus, there will be need for innovative circular agribusiness and VMG is here to cover this gap

SOLUTION

VMG's flagship circular product is premium blended packaged organic gardening soil code named Gimusa. It is partly made out of worm castings generated through a vermicomposting process. The vermicomposting happens in the middle core of VMG's Vertical Farm, which is an urban farming vessel that is comprised of vertically stackable soil beds.

CLIENTS

At the moment, VMG is primarily targeting middle income urban families as early adopters.