Uganda’s trailblazing entrepreneur Aaliyah Sekatawa’s story is an inspiration one to many African women and an example that gender should never be used as a factor to determine one’s success.
Within a relatively short time Aaliyah, the managing director of Rockstone Management Company (Rockstone Manco), has achieved what a lot of male entrepreneurs might never manage to accomplish in their lifetime.
Founded by Aaliyah in 2020, Rockstone Manco is an investment holding and management services company with diversified investments across key growth sectors of the Ugandan economy.
By offering quality health assessments, restructuring guidelines as well as high performance and culture management training, the company continues to make a name for itself in the agriculture and agribusiness services, real estate, technology and media industries.
From Father to Daughter
The fundamentals of running a business were passed onto a young Aaliyah by her father. She vividly remembers the details from her childhood.
“My father owned a business, and I worked with him from a very young age, from when I was about of 8 years old. So, business has always been something that I was drawn to from that age. However, I was still expected to earn a formal education,” explains Aaliyah.
And she did not disappoint. Aaliyah did her father proud by excelling in school and setting herself up for a good opportunity to succeed in life.
After completing her A-Levels at Rainbow International School in Uganda, Aaliyah proceeded to attain a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Webster University in Switzerland.
Successfully studying towards a master’s degree in African development from the London School of Economics and Political Science completed an academic journey that put Aaliyah on sound footing and ready to fulfil her dream to become an entrepreneur.
The birth of Rockstone Manco
Aaliyah began seriously thinking about setting up her own business after the job opportunities that were available to her in Uganda failed to match up to her lifestyle expectations.
“I knew that I needed to earn a certain amount of money to be comfortable and maintain the life my parents had given me and no matter how hard I could work in formal employment I could never double my income working for someone else.
“As such I began consulting and from there on, I was able to earn a living and take care of the responsibilities I had. Rockstone Management Company was established in 2020. However, we began work as early as 2018 an informal business.”
Changing the African Narrative
Through Rockstone Manco, Aaliyah is committed to changing Africa’s current business narrative through innovation by providing embedded strategic leadership and management services to the businesses within their portfolio.
“Our unique and unmatched experiences have bred and nourished persistence and resilience. We aim to help fill gaps in capacity by providing application management services in different business areas.
“We help businesses identify key issues and areas for growth to provide optimized and tailored business strategies. Our consultants have an extensive knowledge base of local business trends, making them best suited to elevate clients in terms of impact and business efficiency.
“Our flexible and dynamic methods to how we approach, and structure work are fluid, allowing us to adapt based on the needs of each client. We focus on outcomes and leverage talent to consistently deliver results.”
Making an Impact
By offering organizational health assessments, the company has been able to offer evaluations that help build, drive and sustain employee performance through strategic recommendations.
Through organizational restructuring, they have also succeeded in remodeling a business to identify and rectify redundancies within organizations.
“We also help organizations tackle low employee motivation by finding tangible solutions to low staff morale. Touching on topics such as mood, performance, and accountability, we ensure that we are instilling values and changing mindsets that resonate with the mission of the organization.”
The results of all the hard work in her father’s shop, at school and later on when she established her business are there for all to see. Aaliyah’s positive impact has resulted in a sustainable growth trajectory for her business as well as personal international accolades and appointments.
Accolades and Recognition
As the current chairperson for the Women Entrepreneurship Platform Africa – a business platform dedicated to advancing women businesses through digital tools – Aaliyah has been listed among the 100 most influential Africans of 2025.
She also became an Africa 40 Under 40 Awards recipient after she was named the 2024 Women of Influence “Rising Star”.
Additionally, she has appeared several times on-air as a business commentator on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to discuss her areas of focus and spoken at the House of Lords about breaking barriers to trade and business for women.
The sky is definitely the limit for Aaliyah. With her at the helm of Rockstone Manco, the company is poised to continue growing and growing.
