I just found out something interesting. The very first census in this area called Uganda happened in 1911. It is also the year in which my treasured alma mater, Busoga College Mwiri was founded. It is safe to say that was indeed a great year. A great school started and someone out there realized the wisdom is working from a point of knowledge and therefore conducted a census.
You see the person who coined the phrase knowledge is power really needs to be found and handed a heroes’ medal for being so profoundly thoughtful. I mean how else can you expect to do anything systematically and seriously from a point of ignorance? A national population and housing census like the one we are having this month is the best way for a government to know how many we are, where we are, how we are living, what we own and how we access vital services.
A government that establishes the above information, is in a better if not superior position to plan and implement necessary programme for the people and the country. In the coming 10days the National Population and Housing Census will be conducted starting with the now famous census night of 09th May 2024. Where this night finds you is where the records will report as your location.
Forget what you may have heard from the rumour mill, there is indeed nothing worth worrying about. First of all, you do not need any document for you to be enumerated. Whether you are a citizen or not you will be counted. Whether you have a national ID or not. The enumerators are basically interested in capturing statistics on number, age, sex structure and key socio-economic and demographic characteristics.
The other good thing about the census is that the information captured is not only kept confidential, it is also consolidated so that you have figures about Uganda not just about you Mr. Jayden Mukiibi of Kiwatule. So do not worry when you are asked if you have an internet connection or a smart. Your answer does not mean that you will end up put on the EFRIS system. So please calm down and wait for the enumerators and cooperate with them.
Oh, and by the way, I love the fact that for the first time the process will be digital. Hopefully that will make it quicker and smoother than before. It will be interesting to know the findings since are always being told about how our population is growing too much. How much is too much? We need to put real figures to some of these assertions.
Personally, I will be more interested in what the results say about our life expectancy because I think it is one of the best indicators of improving or falling living standards of any society. At the last census it was 63.3yrs. Let us wait and see our performance 10yrs later. Indeed it matters to be counted.
Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. Those were the words of the famous Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw. Several other sages echoed the same when talking about the need for us to always get dirty and sculpt the future that we want to see as opposed to just waiting for a surprise to be unveiled.
Young impressionable learners
One of the best ways to go about this is to position the foundation for such work is our school system. Schools as most of us already know, are crucial pillars of society. Even the controversial American motivational speaker and social media activist, Dr. Umar Johnson considers school, alongside a bank, hospital and grocery store as the four essentials of a community.
The Ugandan society is blessed to have a bank that understands the value of the school system as a pillar of society but also as a working space for shaping the future. It is quite commendable that Uganda’s largest bank, Stanbic Bank has invested a lot of resources especially time in working with schools with the aim of building and enhancing the three core skills of personal development, financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
For eight seasons now, the Bank has been organizing the Stanbic National Schools Championship, a platform for nurturing job creators. This year’s version saw over 100 schools across the country competing in the different categories of the championship. In order for young people to shape their own future, the National Schools Championship runs a start-up challenge to spur innovation among school children.
In this challenge, the students come up with fresh ideas and compete not only on the novelty of the idea but also on how best it can be articulated and sold to potential funders, partners and clients for the service or product.
Once the applications were sent in, a vigorous process ensued to zero down on 80 worthy entries that went on to be activated and improved upon. This exercise covered the entire country in the regions of central, western, eastern and northern Uganda.
The lucky ones got to attend a boot camp where they got to learn more and were guided by experts from different fields on how best to sharpen their innovations before unleashing them to the world out there. These young impressionable learners need all the mentorship they can get. Being held on the hand by some of the best in the business world is a privilege that breathes life into the fresh ideas the students come up with.
Each year, Stanbic Bank shows these learners that theirs are not just dreams but prototypes that can be realities. Ideas that can be moved forward from the proverbial napkin to real enterprises that can provide employment, revenue, and so much more.
Stanbic’s Diana Ondoga posing with students of Kiira College Butiki and their fresh juice innovation
The Bank not only provided seed capital, it goes over and above to ensure that there is sustainability of these ideas and this is what you see in the BizGrow and AlumGrow categories of the Championship. The selected innovations also went through further appraisals to ensure that all the Ts had been crossed and the Is had been dotted.
Each year, more and more learners are getting empowered
Throughout the annual lifespan of the championship, you cannot fail to notice the excitement it brings to the schools, the students and the teachers that take part. The chance to dream, wake up and build this dream and watch it get its own legs and is a sight to behold. My biggest take away is the eloquence and passion with which the students talk about their innovations. It is so heartwarming.
Anyone who knows me well knows how passionate I am about education. So passionate that one of the moments I feel truly alive is when there is a teachable moment. A chance to exchange knowledge, skills or attitudes. To learn or teach. Doesn’t really matter whether it is me delivering or I am the one receiving it. It does feel good to impact on young or old but impressionable minds.
Sometimes it is a mutual exercise and this can be literally mind blowing and fun. The question therefore is whether the kind of education today evokes those same sentiments among young people. Is it fun or a ritual aimed at memorizing concepts that they reproduce to pass exams? Is it really mind blowing, is it fun. Is it even mutual or it is stuck in the old pedagogy structures where the teacher knows everything and the children are just vessels to be filled with knowledge. A situation that would rattle the bones of the famous Brazilian educationist, Paulo Freire. If you don’t know him, please Google him!
Some years after discovering the works of Paulo Friere, I also picked up some interesting lessons from Sir Ken Robinson who managed to teach us so much about education in a single TED Talk. Ok not just one because once you watch that famous one it leaves you thirsty for more and you end up watching his other speeches and if you are like me, even buying some of the books he authored.
Professor Robinson said many insightful and quotable things in that TED Talk but my take away was that education should be a process that helps young people to discover what they are good at and love doing and then helping them to get better at doing precisely that.
“Education doesn’t need to be reformed – it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions,” he advised.
When you think about it more, you can help but agree with him on this. The future we want as far as education is concerned is to have learning environments that create the conditions for learners to flourish. To discover themselves and their talents and then be guided on how to improve on them.
A future where regardless of what one chooses to do, they are indeed good at it. They have the skills and flair to execute task with ease. Whether they are doctors or plumbers, they should be very skilled at that which they chose. The world has and continues to change so much. Education is no longer that funnel for learners to all try and squeeze out of to a world of options limited to being a doctor, lawyer or engineer.
New careers keep emerging and each of them require one to be really skilled to thrive. Whether you want to be a lawyer or you are just going to create fun content for apps like TikTok, you should really have the skills to do this well enough to attract the money that can pay bills and lead to self-development and contentment.
When I peep into the future, I see huge population of young people. We need to equip them with more skills than certificates. More apprenticeship than exams. We need to do more for them to have a better future. A future that we want.
You know that strange feeling that hits you when you are in a boardroom, silently pondering how a massive table got into the room? That feeling of awe and curiosity struck me as I waited to meet the Directors of Nile Safari Lodge, Nathalie and Vanessa Van Pee, at their Lodge’s liaison office located at Quality Mall, Lubowa.
However, I wasn’t thinking about how they got the big table in; it’s just that my attention had been seized by this rather massive and unique table they use as an office desk. Often, I can tell a lot about a person’s character by just observing their office desk. The size, the positioning, the material it’s made of and how things are arranged on top of it, all carry deep insights into the character of the one who sits behind it.
It is this table that I kept glancing at while being initiated into the fascinating world of Nile Safari Lodge and the remarkable individuals behind its success. This antique Swahili desk exuded an air of wisdom and was clearly a custodian of countless tales from days of yore. But we’ll revisit this enigmatic table later on.
Vanessa and Nathalie Van Pee
A Family Legacy:
Nile Safari Lodge, owned by NOVAM Limited, is a family-run facility that reflects the shared passions and dedication of Nathalie, Olivier, Vanessa, Alexia, and Maxime – siblings whose names form the company’s acronym. “My family does lots of things together as that name shows. While the boys focus on the transport business with our father, we (Vanessa and Nathalie), have taken the helm of the Lodge’s management. Alexia, the youngest is still pursuing her education, they explained while sorting bathroom supplies for the Lodge and occasionally picking work-related phone calls.
The Unveiling of Uganda’s Beauty:
The roots of Nile Safari Lodge lie in the Van Pee family’s love for travel and camping, which revealed the immense beauty of Uganda to them. As Nathalie expressed, “This country was not called the Pearl of Africa for nothing,” evoking Sir Winston Churchill’s famous description. With the realization that many people remained unaware of Uganda’s splendor; the family seized the opportunity to showcase Uganda’s magnificence while also diversifying the family business. Patrick Van Pee, the father, is involved in transport and logistics.
Initially established as a mid-range/budget facility in 1994, Nile Safari Lodge was a Geo Lodge product that the family had fallen in love with. Luckily for the family, the property was put on sale and they decided to jump on this opportunity. NOVAM Limited was created with the intention to provide a unique accommodation experience.
The company operated the existing lodge for six months so as to gain a firm understanding of the tourism business, then shut it down for a year and revamped it completely into this new exclusive, luxurious, and Eco-friendly haven. Nathalie emphasized the dedication they poured into the project, spending days on-site and even sleeping in their cars. The result – A facility that undoubtedly lives up to its mantra, “Escape The Ordinary.”
Unyielding Resolve:
On September 13, 2019, Nile Safari Lodge welcomed its first guests, but soon after, the world was brought to its knees by the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a very challenging time for the lodge, only compounded by an Ebola outbreak in Uganda. However, Nathalie and Vanessa’s determination remained unshaken this whole time. Believing in the value and uniqueness of their product, they weathered the storm, epitomizing resilience in the face of adversity.
On why they chose to create an Eco-friendly accommodation facility, Nathalie argues that, “we wanted to preserve Uganda’s natural wonders for future generations.” They recognized the global challenges of deforestation and climate change and sought to make a positive impact. Nathalie also acknowledged the vital role played by domestic tourists during the pandemic, appreciating the friendly nature of Ugandans and their proactive approach to problem-solving.
A Personal Touch:
Nathalie and Vanessa’s management style is marked by hands-on involvement and a personal connection with their guests. The sisters spend at least 10 days each month at the lodge, fostering a culture where every guest is treated like family. Maintaining high standards and ensuring a cordial experience is at the core of their approach, as they understand the importance of client relationships and constant upkeep.
Escape The Ordinary
Armed with degrees in Business Management and Hotel Management, Nathalie and Vanessa possess the expertise required to run Nile Safari Lodge professionally. They have been involved in every aspect, from construction to day-today operations. Their unreserved dedication not only uplifts their spirits, it also inspires others young women to thrive in business. The combination of their passion for tourism, instilled during family camping trips, and their commitment to upholding ethical business practices ensures the lodge’s success.
Preserving Precious Legacies:
As we delved deeper into the essence of family, the table that initially captivated me becomes more than just a piece of furniture. Transported all the way from Mombasa, it was once their father’s office table and now holds a special place in the running of Nile Safari Lodge. This heirloom symbolizes their commitment to preserving cherished artifacts for future generations, a testament to their love for family, industry, community and nature.
A Bright Future:
With the dedication and passion demonstrated by these exceptional young women, the future of the tourism industry shines brightly. Oh, and let me not forget to mention the incredible experiences awaiting guests at Nile Safari Lodge—game drives, sundowner boat rides, fishing, and chimp trekking—all within the embrace of Uganda’s surreal beauty. At this lodge, you can truly escape the ordinary and immerse yourself in an unforgettable adventure.
Nile Safari Lodge stands as a testament to the Van Pee family’s vision, passion, and unwavering dedication. Through their love for Uganda and the tourism industry, they have created a haven that captures the essence of luxury and environmental sustainability. The extraordinary journey of Nile Safari Lodge, led by Nathalie and Vanessa, inspires us all to embrace our passions, preserve our natural wonders, and create lasting legacies for generations to come.
This being November, each time I hear anyone mention the suburb of Busega in Kampala, my mind quickly races to the imagery of the delicacy that is Nsenene (fried grasshoppers). I understand that the ones caught from parts of Masaka always ‘land’ in Busega before being distributed to other parts of the city and eventually to a plate or palm near you to indulge.
Busega is not just known for this, it is also where the Kampala Northern Bypass Highway a road that makes up part of the greater northern corridor route that connects Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the port of Mombasa in Kenya. If you have used the road lately, you have surely enjoyed a smooth ride and saved time compared to the past when it did not exist or when it was not yet complete (I think I have PTSD from the trauma of navigating the Kalerwe junction at peak times).
To the ordinary eye, this 21km road may not appear to be that long given the time you take to cover it in a vehicle, however it is proof of what great infrastructure does – connects people, places and opportunities. This is precisely what the European Union (EU) had in mind when it came up the 11th EU Development Fund a €578 (2.2 trillion Uganda Shillings) grant that was spread out among 120 different projects in Uganda from 2014 to 2021. One of those projects was the completion of the Kampala Northern Bypass highway which was co-funded by the Government of Uganda.
Such a magnificent road with its four lanes and five flyovers has done a lot to improve mobility, road safety while also lowering vehicle operating costs. With less travel times, more people, places and opportunities are now connected. It is a pivotal addition in a country where only 4698km out of 66,000km are paved.
The EU has been supportive of Uganda’s transport network to boost integration and connectivity as these boost trade especially export and imports. In Gulu, a logistics hub was built to serve as a dry port for goods moving between Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This hub is plugged into the Malaba – Pakwach rail line, Juba – Kampala Road and a nearby airfield which brings down the costs of import and export logistics and opens up connections to new markets and opportunities.
Regarding water and energy, some of the projects that have benefited from the EU kitty in Uganda include the Ggaba Water treatment plant phase III. An increase in demand for treated and ready-to-drink water within the city had resulted in water shortages. Equipped with modern technology Ggaba III came up and increased the supply of clean water and also reduced the risk of waterborne diseases.
Such modern technology reduces the cost of cleaning and supplying water while at the same time saving the environment. The same can be said of the Katosi plant that was commissioned in March 2021to supply eastern and northern greater Kampala metropolitan areas. Water shortages in the city are now a thing of the past unless there is a power issue affecting the operations at Gaba or Katosi.
Speaking of energy, the need for renewable energy has never been greater. I mean we are now talking about COP27. Uganda has great potential for renewable energy from wind, solar and hydro sources to help reduce the number of people without access to electricity. Only 50% of Ugandans have such access and the figure goes even lower when you step out of the cities.
In Lamwo district, northern Uganda, a solar mini project to connect 25 remote villages has been supported by the EU. More than 15,000 people are now enjoying clean and sustainable solar electricity. The goal here is to bridge the development gap between northern Uganda and the rest of the country. Beneficiaries of this project no longer have to travel long distances to access energy.
There are other infrastructural projects like the Lubigi Faecal Sludge and Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Uganda Railway Museum in Jinja that have been undertaken using the support of the EU. This cements the EU’s position as an incredible development partner of Uganda in its journey to achieve the National Development Plan III.
When we are younger, conversations about retirement are unlikely to suffice since most of us are simply getting a grip of the world of work after school. Although majority of Ugandans are young, the life expectancy has gone up in the last couple of decades. That means, if you are not knocked out by disease or that freak accident involving a Subaru, then you are going to be around long enough to experience retirement as well.
As recent as 2020, life expectancy for the average Uganda was captured at 63.71 years compared to 49.43 years in 1971. This compels us to think a lot more about what we shall be doing with our lives at the time when we are no longer able to work to sustain ourselves.
And indeed many are now taking retirement a lot more serious as seen by the surge in the number of licensed pension schemes in the country and the amount of financial assets they hold. As you read this, over UGX19 trillion is what the various 65 licensed schemes are holding onto compared to less than UGX4 trillion in 2014.
2022 marks 10 years since the establishment of the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA). URBRA is responsible for regulating the establishment, management and operation of retirement benefits schemes in Uganda in both the private and public sectors. In simple terms, they ensure that the people holding your retirement ka money do not dare to play games with it.
Since its establishment, URBRA has done a lot of work to streamline the sector to rid it of inefficiencies, corruption, loss of funds and poor investments that were plaguing the sector for years. And this is what has engendered the confidence with which more and more people are saving for their future life.
The inaugural Annual Pension Sector Symposium
However, your future is not only a matter of cash money. There is also the crucial bit of health and this is why as part of the 10yr anniversary, URBRA organized a two-day health camp in Kampala. The conversation about retirement is useless when you forget that our health generally gets worse as we age.
At the Railway Grounds where the camp was held, I witnessed hundreds of Ugandans turning up for free Covid-19 Vaccination. Others showed up for the free eye, sickle-cells, and TB or blood pressure checkups while the generous ones donated blood to save lives. Those who turned up also had an opportunity to chat up the officials from URBRA as well as some pension scheme providers since we all agree that knowledge is power.
On July 7, 2022 URBRA hosted a symposium at Kampala Serena Hotel under the theme: Rethinking the scope of retirement benefits for Old Age Security. At this symposium almost everyone was in agreement with the fact that a lot more efforts are needed to tackle the issue of coverage. There was consensus that not enough people are saving and even those saving are not saving enough.
“I would like to advise URBRA to come up with innovations to ensure that more people get on board so that retirement benefits is not a privilege for a few,” said Richard Byarugaba, NSSF MD. However, has never been the forte of the public sector so I am sure the players in the sector come up with innovations for URBRA to guide and regulate.
Richard Byarugaba, NSSF MD
I was mostly moved by the submissions by Gautam Bhardwaj, an Ashoka fellow and co-founder of pinBox Solutions, Singapore who stressed that it was possible to bring on board more people using just the available digital infrastructure. He gave the example of India where people are able to set up digital pension scheme accounts using WhatsApp accounts.
He also pointed out that a lot of people undertake what he called credit-oriented saving to take care of insurable risks and emergencies. For this he advised that there was a need to combine micro-pensions with insurance products.
Gautam Bhardwaj
The most critical take away from his presentation was the call to governments to start early as far as educating young people about the value of saving and the magic of compounding interest. He also urged governments to give people incentives to encourage them to embark on this rather important journey of creating a future that works for more people.
If you plan right, your retirement will bring you joy for the rest of your life.
This Covid-19 pandemic forced us to learn to do things differently after keeping us locked down. We worked from home, children took online classes and we made so many of our shopping orders online and just waited for the delivery guy – or as they became known – an essential worker.
That was quite a time by the way. I am talking about the time when only those with special stickers could exercise their human right of freedom of movement. These guys felt so important and we often had to beg them for favours when we needed to get something or move something.
I don’t blame them though. In most settings, there is always that person who wields the kind of power that makes you want to kneel in their presence. In some settings it can even be the person that keeps the much sought after key to the bathroom. Yes, you all know what I am talking about. These are very important people in our society.
In other settings it is the ever elusive and tough accountant who never hesitates to disappear just at the time you needed them to sign somewhere for money to move into your possession. Some of these guys even have the audacity of plastering threatening notices on their doors like “Your Crisis is Not My Emergency”
Sometimes the solution is just right there (Internet Photo)
Now think of all the thoughts that run through your mind when you have a real emergency and you have to approach this person in their office and then begin making them understand that indeed your crisis is an emergency that needs to be attended to. Do not strain your brain too much because as of now, some people have already thought about some of the situations and have crafted a viable solution.
This is where the good folks at Zofi Cash sat and came up with this gem called Zofi Cash App after a personal experience that sparked the light bulb in the mind of Paul Kirungi, the CEO and Founder of Zofi Cash. He realized that there was need for a solution (a digital one) that allows you to process a salary advance in a smooth and fast manner without having to wait for payday. He observed that in some places workers can be paid twice a month, every week or even daily while the common practice here is to wait for the month to end.
Zofi Cash CEO, Paul Kirungi at the launch of the app in October, 2021
With Zofi cash, you get to access some of your earned wages via a simple process via your phone. This is something you can do any day and anywhere. There are no hidden charges since the app shows you what you will have to pay back before you approve the transaction. There is no collateral needed to access these salary advances. There is a toll free customer care line if you have any questions and need someone to take you through the process. This Zofi Cash app is freely available on both Android and Apple app stores.
No hidden rates
Once your employer has been onboarded and all the background checks are done, the employee can start applying for the advances when the need arises. The employer simply approves with their phone and the money is disbursed to you and you can move it to your mobile phone wallet.
“The type of inclusive finance we are focusing on at Zofi Cash is income/earned wages. If someone doesn’t qualify for a loan facility in the bank, they should at least have early access to wages they have made. Our only goal is to make every day a payday,” says Paul Kirungi as he spoke to the Observer Newspaper recently.
We are currently living in the most uncertain times of our generation. The uncertainty stretches from small things like a sleep pattern that is out of control to wondering how the global economy will recover from the effects of the Coronavirus or Covid-19.
Almost every sector has been negatively affected by this global pandemic although some are facing it worse than others. If you think things are bad because of Covid-19 then I am sorry to remind you that the dairy sector has been under the weather for a much longer period. The rain has been beating them for much longer.
You see, Uganda is one of those countries where the mantra, ‘land of milk and honey’ come to life. There is more than enough milk and honey to go around. In fact we even have enough to supply to share with our neighbours and yet things have not been as sweet as honey lately.
Uganda being a member of the East African Community, a community that believes in ease of trade among member states, has over the years developed its dairy sector to a point where there was enough milk to go around the country and even cross the borders to other markets in the region. Liberalization of the sector attracted milk processing firms like Brookside (Fresh Dairy), Pearl Dairy Farms, Jesa Dairy Farm, Milkman, Dairy Top and Amos Dairy now exist in Uganda processing and selling, milk and an array of other related products.
However these companies are currently facing a number of challenges that have brought the sector to its knees. Take the example Pearl Dairy Farms Limited that processes milk under the Trademark name of Lato Milk. Pearl Diary’s processing plant has a production capacity of about 800,000 litres of milk per day. Employing about 2500 people and buying milk from nearly 10,000 farmers, its importance in the sector and economy cannot be over emphasised. The milk is also processed into butter, ghee (Can I use this opportunity to announce my love for ghee? Ok, I just did), skimmed milk powder, full cream milk powder as well as new products like flavoured vanilla and strawberry yoghurt.
About 90% of what they produce (Lato Milk) was being sold to the Kenyan market until recently. Swimming against the tide of good neighbourliness and EAC treaties, Kenya is not allowing Ugandan milk exports since December last year. In February of this year, 10 trucks of Dairy Top milk from Lakeside Dairies were blocked from entering Kenya. The Government of Uganda sent a diplomatic protest note to Kenya but it hasn’t yielded much yet.
These worrying developments have had a devastating trickle-down effect that resulted in Pearl Dairy shutting down its factory and stopping to buy milk from farmers and cooperatives. With Pearl Dairies unable to buy over 600,000 litres from the over 100,000 farmers, farm gate prices plummeted to as low as low as UGX 200 per litre from about UGX 600 to 1200 depending on the weather.
To try and save the situation, Pearl Dairies took the decision to reopen the factory to try and support the farmers. The factory is running at only 30% of its installed capacity and farm gate prices are only averaging about UGX 500 which is still lower that the cost of production.
The year ending June 2019 saw milk exports raking in over $150 million. So you can imagine the dent being left on the national coffers by this current situation that started before the Covid-19 pandemic taxied into our airport. It is also important to recall that the actions by Kenya were preceded by Rwanda locking out Ugandan goods and Tanzania slapping a discouraging levy TZH 2,000 for every litre of milk imported.
Of course there are plans to secure new markets but that this takes a while to materialize. With June – the month for celebrating the dairy industry and its contribution – just around the corner, my only prayer would be for government to fast track efforts to resolve this impasse that way; no one has to cry over spilled milk.
There is this struggle I’ve always had with my young sister when it comes to giving directions around Kampala. She often does it based on the shinny buildings she sees around but because I have been around much longer than many of the buildings I keep telling her that the first point of reference should be the name of the street. This is because many times I don’t know which new building, shopping arcade or club is located in which spot. So when she uses them as points of reference I get more confused. For the streets, I know most of them and I know they have been there for years.
However using street names can also come with some
challenges since we have some streets where the street name signpost was
knocked down and never replaced, we have some where the signpost is there but
it is also serving as a hanging spot for the Boda boda guys’ jackets. And in
some bizarre twist we have roads with the wrong names. I am talking about the
ones that the city council renamed but when it came to putting the signpost they
used the old name.
The roads in Kololo and Nakasero can be quite confusing especially since many carry names of our ‘colonisers’ and if you are not a resident of the place or work there, they tend to look the same with huge houses or office blocks at every turn. The way my mind is set up, street names are memorised better if I can associate the street with something else.
If for example you asked me about Mackinnon road, I would tell you that it is the road that had that posh nursery (or is it kindergarten) school that this young sister of mine who is bad at directions, studied from. I didn’t know much else about the road until I was there to locate Agribusiness Development Centre (ADC) which occupies plot number 1 on that road. Theirs is not one of those imposing structures but their work is what is really imposing as I was soon to find out.
ADC is an organisation that supports Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) to become better organised, profitable, bankable and eventually self sustaining. In other words, they identify those FBO that have potential but lack organisational or other skills to operate in sustainable way and they help them on that front. It is one thing to go into farming and another thing to run it as a business.
Many farmers in Uganda hear about banks that offer loans and other financial services to farmers however many of them do not have their books in order. Some don’t even have any books to talk about. They just grow crops or keep livestock and everything about the farm is in their heads. So when they approach a bank for a loan they are asked about the status of the farm and they have nothing much to show besides their memory.
Others seem to have the paperwork in order but lack the skills to keep the farm running well enough for them to be able to pay back what they have borrowed from the bank. This capacity deficiency is where ADC comes in. I had to sit down with Aaron Chandia who is in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation to get to the bottom of what exactly ADC does for farmers in Uganda and how it does it.
Aaron was quiet patient with my ignorance and answered all
the questions I had and more. It is always good to find someone who can do a
good job at explaining what they do without falling for the temptation to use
the moment to just brag about it. According to Chandia, ADC covers three main
areas of governance, financial literacy and marketing.
The capacity building trainings that ADC offers start with facilitating
FBOs, which maybe set up as cooperatives or Saccos, with setting up a clear
governance structure. A well run FBOs needs to have a clear structure of how
leaders are chosen and what is expected of them. The second intervention is the
one about financial literacy. This one is for all members of the FBO because it
is very important for them not to only be knowledgeable about agronomy but also
agribusiness.
In addition, financial management training is also offered to the finance staff and management of the FBO. These are the people supposed to make a case to the banks for more money so they need to be skilled enough to do it well. And to ensure that this well run organisation keeps their cash flow on point, Marketing is the other area that ADC trainings cover. It is not enough having a garden with the juiciest tomatoes or fattest chicken if you have no skills to market them well.
These people at ADC are so systematic, once an FBO has been identified they start by assessing the skill levels using a scoring system so as to know the best level at which they should intervene. They have a curriculum they follow for these trainings and many who have benefited are the ones that end up spreading the word around. They also have a component of innovations where they have developed e-learning platforms and other applications that help farmers like Simu+, Kuza that can be used by more farmers.
To be able to pull off this amazing work, ADC has funding from dfcu Bank and Rabo Foundation. dfcu Bank is aware of the fact that agriculture is a key pillar of the Ugandan economy and therefore understands the need to play a role in the capacity building of farmers in the country. It is also not surprising that their other organisation that funds ADC, is Rabo Foundation, the social fund of Rabobank which is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company. Rabobank is a global leader in food and agriculture financing.
In short, both dfcu and Rabo foundation are committed to empowering farmers and ADC was fitting the bill as a partner in this regard. Apart from the money, these two esteemed financial institutions also bring a wealth of financial experience and networks to the table. Their financing has enabled ADC to cover four regions in Uganda and work with 114 FBOs with a target of reaching 375 by the year 2022.
ADC takes the trainings to where the farmers are and works
with district agricultural officers to identify those in need of trainings with
the goal of ensuring that they can eventually have access to credit and market
for their produce. There have been clear improvements in the way many FBOs
operate. Many now have bank accounts, do book keeping, hold annual general
meetings and are generally more bankable now than before.
“For us, focus is on adoption and practice.” – Aaron Chandia
Are you
into people watching like me? I am talking about this cool sport that I believe
deserves a slot at the next Olympic Games. It is so much fun observing how people
behave in certain scenarios. Some of the best places to indulge in people
watching are restaurants. Famished people tend to put up a good show if you can
observe them without necessarily staring.
What you see also depends on whether one is a regular in an eating place or not. Regulars tend to know what exactly they want and how they want it. While the visitors struggle to hide their ignorance about what is available and how it is served. In the high end restaurants where meals have fancy names and prices that compel you to think about whether you should just spend the money on buying Yaka power units, it’s not rare to see some diners reading the menu like it were an encyclopedia.
Chicken luwombo
Others will be seen reading the menu like it is some piece of Arabic text. They start with the part that has the prices on the right and then move to the left to see which dish costs that much. I have been told that this pro-tip has been known to save many from the cardiac arrest that can arise from ordering a dish and then discovering the price much later.
There are times you see a couple, one reads the menu for hours and the moment the other has made an order, the ‘reader’ immediately says, “I will have that as well.” This move can also been seen when you go to those restaurants where the menu is what the waitress can remember. In these places one will simply look around and go, “Nange mpa nga eyoli” (give me just like what that one has).
There is a common phrase in these low end restaurants that you may never get to hear anywhere outside Uganda – Mmere yonna! I love that term because nothing proves that Uganda is gifted by nature than that phrase which simply means all foods. Such an order means that your plate will come with everything that is in the kitchen as far as food is concerned.
Some of these restaurant habits got me thinking about how some people approach the issue of loans. I am not talking about the high risk ones from money lenders that give you money so easily but are ruthless when it comes to collecting what is theirs be it the money or the pricey assets you staked against this money. I am talking about personal loans that banks extend to salaried workers.
I have this friend of mine; we shall call him Isaac, for my own safety. This chap thinks that loans are acquired the same way one walks into a restaurant and orders for Mmere yonna or looks at what they neighbour has on their plate and just says me too. Isaac has a new job with one of the big telecoms but even before he can complete his probation, he can’t stop talking about how he will soon be eligible for a personal loan. On those days when he doesn’t have much work on his desk, you can be sure to catch him calculating how much he can get as a loan based on his net salary.
After having done those calculations over and over, he has now moved to a new pastime; checking out car brands on those websites with reconditioned Japanese cars. There are days when you walk to his desk and find him tilting his head to get another angle of the newer models of the Subaru Legacy and he won’t hesitate to remind you how he dislikes the shape of the Forester as if anyone has ever forced him to like it.
There are sober days when he talks about how he also doesn’t want to be employed for ever and intends to start his own hardware business at some point. He doesn’t have any experience in this field but is sold to it because he sees a lot of evidence that construction work happens almost everywhere you look. So the market must surely be there. I keep worrying that this excitement may end in tears if he is not willing to do more research about this business before stepping in the river with both feet.
Does Isaac really need a loan or he wants to get it simply because he qualifies for one? This question has bothered me for a while but I was lucky to get some answers when I spent some time with someone who has those answers so detailed and readily available. There is an amiable and witty lady called Barbara Asiimwe at dfcu Bank who took me through what it means to apply for what she called an Unsecured Personal Loan.
Just like a restaurant, dfcu Bank can give you a long list of loans they serve to their clients. However it pays to be like the smart and informed diner who knows the meal they want and how exactly they want it. According to Asiimwe, you do not have to ask for the maximum amount that you qualify for without having a clear plan on what you need the money for and how much you need. She strongly advises against this tendency of borrowing fwaaa.
From our chat, my biggest take away was the importance of financial literacy. One ought to fully understand what their need is, how they will utilise the money for its intended purpose and of course clarity on how this money will be paid back. It helps to know if you qualify for the loan by first establishing if you yourself are a reliable employee working with a reliable employer. The kind of employer that has a reputation for adhering to basic work ethics and the labour laws of the country. If your employer is the kind who doesn’t want to pay taxes or NSSF then you are already in trouble. If your employer is that jama who pays workers in cash then you can forget expecting this loan.
The dfcu Unsecured Personal Loan is ideal for a lot of self improvement undertakings and one can be extended up to UGX150 million, to be paid back in a period not exceeding 60 months. As long as your net salary is at least UGX200,000 for government employees or UGX400,000 for Non-Government employees then you are in good standing. All you have to do now is to provide the Bank a little more proof that you have the capacity to pay back by presenting recent pay slips among other standard requirements.
Once all your paperwork is neatly presented, you can be sure to receive a response from the bank in just hours. 48 to be precise. Did I forget to mention that the loan is insured against eventualities like death and permanent disability? Yes you read that correctly. This loan is insured ba dear. When it comes to paying back, the bank does not expect you to pay more than 50% of your monthly salary. This is done to ensure that the loan repayments do not take up all your whole salary and you become a burden to your coworkers, always asking them if they have a ka loose 50k.
Allan's Wordy World 