Maxima Nsimenta, the CEO of Livara cosmetics, a local company, has been declared winner of the Women Innovator Category at the Uganda Science Innovation Awards.
Organised by the Ministry of Science in partnership with Private Sector Foundation Uganda, the Science Innovators’ Awards are to celebrate Uganda’s innovation efforts to inspire young innovators’ abilities and contribution to development.
The awards ceremony took place in Kampala on Wednesday during World Science Day celebrations at Kololo Airstrip.
Nsimenta welcomed the award, saying it inspires to continue working hard.
“Thanks to the judges who found us worthy for this award. Thanks to all the people that took time to vote for me. The public vote contributed 10% to my winning of this award. It means the world to Livara and me,” she said.
Other winners were Dorcus Gloria who won the mobility category for her project, a Smart Monitoring and Control Unit for Electric Vehicle Charging.
Maxima Nsimenta started making Livara beauty products in 2014. Today, Livara retails in 6 exclusively owned stores, 3 saloons and round the world. Nsimenta recently appeared on #360Mentor hosted by Robert Kabushenga (RK) where she spoke about how she built the company.
“I am obsessed with good things. Whatever I do becomes my life. I leave no room for failure. One of my worst fears growing up was poverty and not being able to achieve something I needed to achieve in life because of lack of finances. Yes when I quit my job it was by choice and I lost out on the opportunity to freely travel. However, recently, my job is giving me opportunities to travel through sponsorships by different people. I knew that ten years or so later, I would be able to reap out of it. I just had to be so good at what I was doing,” she said.