Frequently asked questions

Our main products include drip and sprinkler irrigation equipment, rainwater harvesting tanks, HDPE geomembrane dam liners, geotextile fabric i.e. woven and non woven geotextile fabric, geo grids, gabion baskets, borehole/hand pump spares parts, surveying equipment, construction materials, construction equipment, solar street lights and solar street light poles, submersible water pumps, surface water pumps, HDPE water pipes, borehole casing pipes, steel pressed tank towers, armoured cables, solar water heaters, solar panels, generators, ISSB machines, toxic gas monitoring equipment, water treatment and purification systems, among others.

Our main services include structural and architectural drawings, land surveys, engineering surveys, topographical surveys, design of solar powered piped water systems, solar street lighting, ISSB trainings, design of solar powered irrigation systems, construction of fish ponds and valley tanks, design of wastewater treatment plants, bathymetric surveys, hydrographic surveys, design of mine tailings facilities, construction of sanitation facilities, hydrogeological surveys, borehole drilling, borehole motorization, borehole fishing, borehole rehabilitation, electrical wiring and lighting installation, electrical transformers, biogas plants, earthworks, civil works, painting works, tiling works, roofing works, culverts, drainage works, swimming pool construction, plumbing works, unblocking plumbing blockages, repairing leakages and pipe bursts, etc.

We are able to serve both roles. Depending on the nature of the project, we can either serve as a consultant or contractor. For the majority of our projects, they have been turnkey, affording us the opportunity to serve as both consultant (during design) and contractor (during implementation).

Yes. We offer comprehensive plumbing and drainage services, including unblocking of blocked plumbing, drainage, and sewer pipes. We also supply sewer/drain rodding sticks and sani-sticks used in clearing plumbing blockages.

Yes. We offer water engineering related services for development of self-supply (point-of-use) options such as borehole drilling, shallow well drilling, and rainwater harvesting. In the case of borehole drilling, the engagement procedure for our services begins with a hydrogeological survey to ascertain the presence or absence of groundwater in your land, and to locate the optimal borehole drilling point.

Yes. We offer borehole rehabilitation services, beginning with borehole camera inspection to inform subsequent actions such as borehole flushing and borehole fishing.

We do undertake high billing investigations, non-revenue water management, and active location and repair of pipe/plumbing leakages. In addition to fixing plumbing leakages and pipe bursts, we undertake water audits to advise on water efficient plumbing fixtures.

Each individual farm has its most suited irrigation technologies, based on a number of factors. The possible irrigation technologies we could recommend and implement for your farm include drip irrigation, overhead sprinkler irrigation, and centre pivot irrigation. For farms for which valley dams/valley tanks/water harvesting ponds are the ideal solution, our services include dam excavation, as well as supply and installation of dam liners/pond liners.

Our detailed profile is as can be accessed on our website on www.sankofaconsultingengineers.com . It gives an extensive list of the different products and services offered by our company, and is always up-to-date with our service and product offerings.

Prices for our products and services are NOT fixed. We base our pricing on different factors such as risk involved in the project, project timeframe, season of the year, project complexity, profit mark up, overhead costs, project location, payment terms, inflation, competition, type of contract, applicable taxes, etc. Overall, we ensure that our prices and fees are competitive, based on industry standards.

Actual costs and fees for any project engagement are provided to prospective clients in a detailed quotation for the products and services being sought, and the validity of such prices.

Yes. We do charge a modest fee for undertaking the site visit.

Generally, thirty (30) days. We do ensure to state quote validity in every quotation shared with prospective clients.

This varies depending on several factors such as urgency, local availability or need for importation, volume/quantity, etc. We do ensure to state delivery time for any product or service in our quotations to prospective clients for proper planning.

We accept payments in Uganda shillings (UGX) and United States Dollar (USD). Payments can be made by bank transfer i.e. wire transfer, RTGS, EFTs, or by cheque. For clients that choose the cheque option, delivery of goods and commencement of services/works can ONLY be initiated after the cheque has matured.

No. Our sales terms are guided and dictated by payment terms as stipulated in our credit policy, to preserve the liquidity of the company, and reduce the level of bad debts.

Yes, we do. This typically is six (06) months. Though this may differ depending on the nature and type of project under execution, and as such, the warranty period stated in the quotation and contract supersedes any other warranty terms of the company.

We are open to joint project undertakings, depending on the nature of the project. This can take on various forms as Joint Venture (JV), Sub Contractor, Sub Consultant, or Special Purpose Vehicle Company (SPVC).

We also welcome business opportunities on projects that have already been awarded, and are open to taking on such roles of serving as a sub consultant or sub-contractor.

We strive to offer impartial advice and guidance to clients on products we recommend and outsource for their projects. We thus take time to study a wide range of products/product technical datasheets from various manufacturers globally and local stockists, to gauge which products better match client requirements/technical properties/technical performance requirements. Against this backdrop, we, as an impartial consultant DO NOT serve the role of a sole distributor, stockist, or reseller, or promote any brands of any manufacturer. We believe that by the very nature of engineering projects, clients should be able to be patient to allow us to undertake the importation of such products, if not locally available. We thus can only profile manufacturers that reach out to us in our vendor database and contact them from time to time for product technical datasheets and for prevailing prices for their products, for which we compare against products and prices from other manufacturers.

We welcome global and local manufactures, technology partners, and vendors. The initial point of contact involves reaching out via email, phone call, or WhatsApp and sharing about their products and services. After this, we can choose to profile them in our vendor database and reach out to them from time to time when we need products and services in their line of business.

We DO NOT take on equity investments or offer any company shares for sale. As well, we do not take on high risk loans from mezzanine financiers, capital firms, and loan sharks. Our company is adequately capitalized courtesy of reserves accumulated over the years, and this enables it to successfully fund its operations and take on projects of any size. Moreover, clients are required to advance a substantial amount of the project costs prior to commencement of works, which guards the company from taking on high risk loans. We thus can authoritatively and confidently rule out any possibilities for equity investment, capital finance, mezzanine financing, mergers, and acquisitions.

Our recruitment process begins with advertisement of job vacancies, so they can be filled on a competitive basis. Interested candidates submit their applications online, which are reviewed by the hiring panel to shortlist those that best fit the job specification for interviews. Verification of academic documents and background checks/reference checks are conducted for successful candidates, after which an employment contract is prepared and shared with them. If they agree to the terms of the employment offer, we proceed with contract signing, and lastly the onboarding process. We rarely give focus to speculative job applications, based on the fact that we prefer to receive applications during a specific ‘application window’, review them at once, and select the top performing candidates from this wide pool of applicants, for this is what can ably afford us the opportunity to identify and hire top performers to our team.

We deploy blind reviews during shortlisting of interview candidates.

We offer employment roles in a wide range of professions, including engineering, finance and accounting, procurement and logistics, audit, I.T, human resource management, social works, etc.

We consider candidates with Bachelors’ and Masters’ qualifications. However, a few artisan level roles on our team are an exception to this rule, and can be considered even at Certificate level i.e. Plumbers and Pipefitters (Certificate in Plumbing and Pipefitting), Welders (Certificate in Welding and Metal Fabrication), Masons (Certificate in Bricklaying and Concrete Practice), and HVAC (Certificate in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning).

Full-time employees are offered one (01) year contracts, subject to renewal, based on performance, department budget, and available projects’ manpower needs.

Each of our full-time employees is entitled to a monthly salary, subject to all statutory deductions. We also offer monthly accommodation allowance, airtime allowance, transport allowance, and a weekly meals stipend. As well, staff have annual paid leave, training opportunities, field allowance, annual bonus based on company profitability, among others.

Yes, we largely offer graduate internships, dubbed the SANKOFA Young Professionals’ Fellowship Program. Our graduate internships are paid. Internships undertaken for academic credit are UNPAID.

This varies based on the type of internship. For academic internships, these vary depending on the type of institution and academic award, typically between 4 weeks to 10 weeks MAXIMUM. As for graduate internships, normal internships last up to 3 months (12 weeks), while internships with extensions last up to 6 months (24 weeks) MAXIMUM.

We don’t have a fixed number of interns that we recruit. This varies from cohort to cohort, depending on running projects, department needs and internship budgets, and number of high-quality candidates.

Our internships are developed and benchmarked on international standards, ensuring interns are fully engaged, and thus acquire industry relevant technical skills and soft skills. We focus on intern personal and professional development, and each intern is assigned a facilitative manager to guide their internship journey and provide them assignments, ensuring they are fully engaged and productive throughout their internship placement. We do NOT run non career focused internships of “making coffee and running errands”. In addition, we do NOT offer any SALES and MARKETING roles, ensuring interns devote their stay in active project execution, skills acquisition, and business exposure through active engagement both in office and field facing assignments.

No. We prefer that people that offer their services to our company are adequately and equitably compensated/remunerated for their services in compliance with our modern slavery and trafficking policy. As such, we do NOT offer any volunteer opportunities in our company.

We welcome global experts and talent, most especially for specialized service disciplines. As well, our working terms are flexible to accommodate numerous engineering consulting sector realities. Experts typically with over fifteen (15) years of experience interested in part time roles/freelance consulting can reach out via email, phone call, or WhatsApp to discuss their credentials and potential avenues for engagement.

Our consulting company is unique basically on account of the multidisciplinary nature of the team with a wide repertoire of skills, hence able to deliver turnkey projects. Our value proposition has been explained to deeper depth under the “ABOUT US” page.

We serve individual clients (private individuals), private companies, government MDAs (Ministries, Departments, and Agencies), Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), diplomatic missions, donors, development partners, Faith Based Institutions (churches and mosques), cultural institutions, and academic/tertiary institutions such as universities, secondary schools, consultants, contractors, etc.

Our main country of operations is Uganda, which hosts our Head Office. In addition, we have executed and continue to execute projects in Rwanda and Tanzania, and as such have satellite offices in Rubengera and Bukoba respectively.

We are keen to avoid taking the ‘scattergun approach’. Our main focus regarding CSR is on our signature program, SANKOFA Young Professionals’ Fellowship Program. Our goal is to address unemployment and skills development for the next generation of sector professionals. Through this initiative, we are confident that we shall contribute our fair share to human capital development and socio-economic transformation and wellbeing.
From time to time, the company may consider other initiatives that have a philosophical and mission alignment to our goals and objectives, as may be advertised in open calls. As a bare minimum, we DO NOT engage in any CSR initiatives that have political, religious, or tribal inclination/leaning, as we strive to be neutral in our business operations.

Yes, we do participate as delegates in industry exhibitions and expos that lie in our different areas of service.

We strongly encourage visitors to schedule business appointments through available online channels prior to their visit i.e. email, phone call, or WhatsApp. Advance preparation enables us to maximize our meeting engagements, but also avoids conflicting with other business activities. This is also key since most client queries are best addressed by technical staff, who spend most of their time implementing field-based projects.