GREAT LOSS FOR THE UGANDA FUNERAL SERVICES

June 29, 2021 - Regina Mukiibi Mugongo, founder of modern, professional funeral services in Uganda passed away at the age of 65 on Tuesday June 29, after a short illness. She died on Tuesday at Entebbe International Airport as she was being taken abroad for Covid-19 treatment.

In 1994, Mugongo jointly registered Uganda Funeral Services, a funeral service management company with her deceased brother, Freddie Katamba Mukiibi. As she ventured into the funeral management business, Mukiibi undertook professional training at the Salisbury College of Funeral Sciences and Embalming in London. UFS was the first funeral home of its kind in the country.
In an interview with Daily Monitor in 2015, Mukiibi said introducing the concept of funeral services in Uganda was hard due to the cultural barriers. “In Africa for example, women are expected to handle the bodies of their dead husbands with bare hands. It would be deemed inconceivable or disrespectful for them to handle the body with gloves,”
She then went back to school to study how to run a funeral service business. After training from the Salzburg Funeral Science Institute in the UK, where she earned a Diploma, she returned to Uganda, closed the tour business and started Uganda Funeral Services.
Last year, the Bible Society of Uganda awarded Mukiibi and six other female Christians for breaking barriers in male dominated sector and ended up at the top. The Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) recognized her funeral service company with the Best Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 award.

REGINA MUKIIBI MUGONGO joined FIAT-IFTA in 2010 and participated in the 11th FIAT-IFTA International Convention Beijing, 22 – 26 June 2010.Since then she has – when her professional activities allowed it - participated in all FIAT-IFTA meetings and FIAT-IFTA Members from all countries were privileged to share her sense of professional pride.