Ugandans brewed long before they had breweries. Tonto, also called mwenge bigere, is made from ripened bananas whose pressed juice is fermented with roasted sorghum, and is most popular in the central and western regions; ajon comes from finger millet, omuramba from sorghum and kweete from maize and millet. Until 1946 the beer sold in Uganda came from abroad.
Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) was formally started on 27 July 1946 by East African Breweries (EABL) of Kenya, with a Dane as first managing director, on a site at Luzira beside Port Bell on Lake Victoria that was picked for its water. Its mild Bell Lager, named for the port, came off the line in 1950, the year Macclesfield Brewery of Cheshire took a share; EABL bought in in 1959. In 1970 the Obote government announced a 60 per cent state stake in big companies, and in the 1970s the state took full control of UBL (in 1974 or in 1976, the sources differ); it went back to EABL in 1984. Guinness bought into Kenya Breweries in 1990, Guinness stout reached Uganda in March 1995, the ban on imported beer was lifted on 1 April 1998, UBL took over Uganda Distillers and its Uganda Waragi in 1999, and Diageo gained control of EABL in 2000.
Nile Breweries (NBL) began in 1951 at Njeru near Jinja, by the Owen Falls Dam. It was founded, says the Nile Post, by expatriates working on the dam and sold to the Madhvani group after the dam was finished in 1954; Uganda Business News dates the purchase by Muljibhai Madhvani to 1957. The state took NBL over in 1972, after Idi Amin expelled the Asians, and the Madhvanis had it back by 1992 at the latest. South African Breweries bought 40 per cent in 1997 and more in 2001; SABMiller joined AB InBev in 2016. NBL launched the sorghum lager Eagle in 2002 for a lower excise, spent 29 million US dollars on Jinja in 2009 (0.9 to 1.8 million hectolitres) and opened a second brewery at Mbarara in October 2013.
In 2011 NBL overtook UBL; in mid-2012 the shares were put at 52 per cent for NBL, 46.5 for UBL and 1 to 1.5 for Parambot Breweries of Gayaza, the maker of Moonberg lager since 2007. Commercial beer was then only 5 per cent of all alcohol drunk in Uganda; NBL says over 60 per cent is now illicit. Banange Brewing Company, billed as Kampala's first microbrewery, opened in March 2019 at the Yujo Izakaya restaurant in Nakasero, set up by the Canadian Adam Cameron and the Icelander Páll Kvaran. Yuti Breweries, started in 2018 at Namanve, was opened by President Museveni on 4 July 2020 and sells the lagers Yura Gold and Yura Strong.
In October 2026 NBL began its 75th-anniversary celebrations at Jinja (over 1.9 million hectolitres there, 1.1 million at Mbarara) and in July 2026 it launched its first spirit, Kyooto Waragi. UBL commissioned a 39.9-billion-shilling bottling line at Port Bell in July 2024. In December 2025 Diageo agreed to sell its 65 per cent of EABL, UBL's parent, to Asahi of Japan for 2.3 billion US dollars: Uganda cleared the deal, a Kenyan court halted it in June 2026, Kenya's competition authority approved it on 10 September 2026, and completion is expected in the second half of 2026.
