Kampala - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the availability and cost of household help, and what types of help are typically employed by expatriates?
Very cheap household help, difficult to find honest help. Find and hire early. We got very lucky, we have a housekeeper, chef, and driver for under $1,000/month. We pay on the high end. Housekeeper/nanny is 800k UGX - 1.5m UGX per month ($200 - $400/mo). Drive is about the same. Just depends on what you want. I do not drive here and I've driven everywhere. The driver and chef do all the shopping because it simply takes too long if you both work. - Jan 2024
Very affordable and a large pool of well trained employees. We have a housekeeper/cook/nanny, a driver and a gardener. Average pay now is 50,000 UGX a day which is around $13 USD. Our staff is full time but many friends employ people part-time and that seems to work out well also. - Jun 2022
Help is abundantly available, but good and honest help may not be. Due to inflation, I do not know how much it would cost now. I had a household helper UGX 30,000 per day for a part-time. Our gardener's wage was approximately $10 a day. Live-in nannies, helpers are also available. Some people pay more, others pay less. If your diplomatic mission has an average cost survey result, check it out. 8 Make sure you try them out, check their references. I found some could be unpleasant in a different ways. - Dec 2021
Available and affordable. This may be the biggest perk of this post. Almost everyone employs help of some kind. Drivers, housekeepers, nannies, gardeners. Labor in general in very inexpensive. Typical cost for full time help is around $300 a month. - Aug 2020
Very available, we have a wonderful nanny and gardener/driver. - Nov 2019
Very reasonable. About US$250-350 a month when I was there for a full-time live-in nanny. About the same for a maid. $200-$250/mo full-time driver. $100/mo part-time gardener. Add 10% for the Christmas/Eid bonus. Expect requests for loans. - Oct 2019
Household help is really reasonable. Perhaps not as well-trained as in other countries, but very reasonable. Most people have at least a part-time housekeeper and part-time gardener. - Mar 2019
Household help is readily available and cheap, but the quality depends greatly on how thorough you are in your screening. Working for an expat family is a great deal, as some household staff earn more than high-ranking government officials. A typical family with children might have a driver, a nanny, and a cleaner/cook. The help usually comes as a package, though, e.g., nanny X will only work with driver Y, for example. - Feb 2019
Full-time live-out household help is paid around US $300-ish per month. Most folks have a housekeeper or housekeeper/cook, a p/t gardener, and a driver (or driver/gardener). Families with kids usually have a nanny as well. - Jan 2019
Household help is about US$200.00 to $400.00 per month, depending upon how generous one is. - Dec 2018
Definitely available and not expensive. - Dec 2018
Quality household help is easily available and inexpensive compared to the US. Most people have several people working for them, including myself. We have a nanny/housekeeper, a cook, a driver and gardener. Our staff has been amazing, they've made our lives easier, and have become part of our family. Some people have had issues of theft but we have been very blessed with the people we selected. - Oct 2018
A lot of people have gardeners, housekeepers and drivers. Average daily rate for housekeepers was US$10.50/day in 2016 and about $10.00/day for gardeners and drivers. - Sep 2018
We have a very small home and no kids so we don’t need much help. We have a housekeeper who works two days a week and is paid US$50 every 2 weeks. - Sep 2018
Housekeepers are plentiful. Cost ranges widely. An typical cost may be US$15-$20 for an 8 hour day. - Aug 2018
Household help is available, and not too costly. A full time household helper would run US$200-$300/month. Typically people have housecleaners, cooks, drivers, nannies, and gardeners. A number of people also have staff who take on combined responsibilities. - Jun 2018
Very available, inexpensive and relatively good. Nannies, housekeepers, cooks, gardeners and drivers. If you have a need, you can pretty much find someone here who will do it for you. - Jun 2018
Readily available and very affordable. - Aug 2015
Widely available and very reasonable, though quality varies a great deal. Between our gardener, housekeeper, and nanny, we spend about US$700 per month (quite a bit less than we spent for just our nanny at our previous post). We don't have a driver at this time but many people do. A full time driver costs about US$250 per month. - Jun 2014
Previous Embassy help can be 300,000 to 650,000 ugx. Gardening 200,000 to 400,000 ugx depending on lot size. - Oct 2013
Available and inexpensive. Ugandans, in general, are very warm with children, and a nanny is easy to come by. As is a gardener, driver, cook, and housekeeper. We have a housekeeper who doubles as a nanny, and we pay her about $200/mo for full-time work. We also have a gardener we pay about $100/month, also for full-time work. - Mar 2013
Very available but of mixed quality. Best to interview carefully. We found lots of fraudulent references. Anyone needing a job applies to be a housekeeper or nanny or cook. Most need some training particular to your household. Invest the time early on. - Sep 2009
