The university campus is located on Nkumba Hill in Wakiso District, approximately 12 kilometres (7 mi), by road, north-east of Entebbe International Airport,[2] along the northern shores of Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater body in the world.

The university offers courses leading to certificates, diplomas, baccalaureate degrees as well as postgraduate academic qualifications.

[5] On 29 July 1951, Ssalongo Kintu a local merchant, invited two of his best friends to a meeting: Charles Kisitu Ffulu, the then Parish Chief of Nkumba, and Zefania Mpanga, a civil servant who resided in the area.

1968 was just two years after the Mengo Crisis of 1966 and the school was on the verge of collapse with the Uganda government and landlord Nelson Nkalubo Ssebuggwaawo pulling ropes over declining student enrolment, when Paul Livisingstone Kisulo Mukasa one of the teachers popularly called "professor Mukasa" persuaded community elders including Kintu Ssalongo, Yolamu Kiwanuka, Christopher Ssempa, Badru Kasule, Engineer Mutyaabi Ngulumi, landlord Ssebuggwaawo and a handful of others to entrust him into reviving it.

In 1974, the name of the school was changed to Nkumba College of Commerce and Advanced Studies by Education minister Al Hajji Abu Baker Kakyaama Mayanja during the first graduation ceremony when he declared, "This is not just a school, it is Nkumba College of Commerce and Advanced Studies", and donated 10 brand new manual typewriters.