Thursday, 28.2. – Reaching out

Following the project plan, I start to touchbase with the first Ugandan banks and succeed in reaching HR contacts in two main banks, who both confirm their interest to participate in the event that we have scheduled for 14. March. This is an excellent kick-off and indicates that we seem to be on the right track with our project.

At 11, Oliver Schmidt from GIZ kindly gives me a lift in his car from Fort Portal to the University (which saves me another shirt covered with dust!) and I am up to meet the group of students who I plan to give a coordination role in the banking cooperation project. I meet 3 students from 2^nd year and 2 students from 1^st year who very curiously look at me since they have no clue of what expects them now.

So I give them a rough overview on what the project is about  by going through the terms of reference, which ultimately also defines their role: being a subject matter expert on the banks participating in the cooperation, being a first point of contact for BBDF students who are interested in working in banks as interns or graduates, and also act as secondary relationship managers towards those banks.

All in all this is a great opportunity for all of them and once they realised this, they seemed to be quite happy to be chosen. We perfected the meeting with handing out a USB stick from our GTB marketing department as gift to everyone and agreed to meet again the following Friday at 1PM.

Oliver Schmidt then gave me ride back to the Dutchess for a late joint lunch. I used the afternoon for some recovery, since I am maintaining a bad cold for some days now. Around dawn, Geoffrey hands me over his overview with bank addresses, so I can call some more banks tomorrow and further carry on with the project.

Wednesday, 27.2. – On the move

Felix is picked up by Boda-John in the morning to give his first lecture (of a series of 4 scheduled) on corporate cash conversion. With a short break in the middle, the 3h were well filled and the students nicely participated by diving into the topic and asking questions.

Meanwhile I finalise my terms of reference on the banking cooperation project and send off the draft version to Christoph Zipfel and Oliver Schmidt from GIZ in order to ensure our joint understanding on the layout of the project and next steps. Since the date is now scheduled (14.3.), the clock is ticking. We will be working hands-on along the project plan I have laid out.

Geoffrey proposes to soon share his bank contacts by mail or in written form with me and also has identified the student group that is envisaged to work in the banking cooperation project. We will meet tomorrow at 12 in the university, after their morning lecture.

Early afternoon we pack our bags since we have to move to another accommodation, so Michel picks us up and gives us a lift to the Dutchess.

Dinner there with Eddy, a retired local banker who Felix met on tonight's Rotary event in Fort Portal.

Editorial addendum for today:

A positive side-effect of our move is that Michel provides 3 workstations at the Dutchess and I am now finally able to upload pictures, since here I can access the appropriate browser version that enables me doing so. The procedure itself however is very slow due to the quality of the data connection, so there will  be no high-definition pictures.

Tuesday, 26.2. – Rolling it up

A busy ‚Home Office‘ day. In the morning, Felix received printouts from Geoffrey for two chapters of the book he will need for his lecture and was busy preparing his first session that is scheduled for tomorrow. I draft a terms of reference (TOR) document for the banking cooperation project, aiming at documenting and agreeing the project layout, its objectives, strategy and stakeholder structure.

While working on the TOR, Oliver Schmidt calls me and asks me to give a further lecture on my Product Management and Organisation piece to GIZ’s Financial System Development (FSD) Group on an occasion that will tentatively be scheduled for 13^th of March in Kampala. Since Product Management seems to become a ‘trending topic’ during our stay in Uganda, I see the need to further perfect my presentation and include thoughts we had put together in the context of a DB-internal initiative on the self-conception of Product Management I had worked on some time ago for our Senior Management with a team of three other Product Managers. Thanks to Giovanna, our hero of knowledge-management in the Frankfurt Office, I had the presentation I was looking for in my mailbox shortly after I called her in the office.

Today we also received the official alert from the German embassy in Uganda on the upcoming elections in Kenya and potential effects on Uganda. So far, we do not expect that our plans will be impacted, however certainly will keep an eye on the further development in order to avoid any risk exposure.

Since the date for the kick-off in Kampala has now been scheduled (Thursday, 14. March), we have also booked our accommodation for the second week of March, so that we can use the time between Monday and Wednesday to personally link up with local Banks before the event and ensure their attendance and commitment.

Before closing the day, we have a follow-up call with Alexander from the CSR team in DB Frankfurt in order to discuss administrational aspects of the project as well as the status and progress made so far.

For dinner, we meet up with Oliver & Family, Felix (#2) and Philipp from GIZ and ride up to Kluge’s Guest Farm, a beautiful venue up in the mountains run by Stefan Kluge, a German ex-pat from Bonn, working and living for 34 (!) years in Central Africa. After a delicious barbecue and a serious tour through Stefan’s bar, we ride home to Fort Portal on a 10km dirt road that still offers much room for improvement.

Monday, 25.2. – Juggling loose ends

Busy day: Early Breakfast and pick-up by Boda-John at 8:30AM to the University. The distance is about 4km and by halfway, I am completely covered by the red-brown dust that is produced by the vehicles in front of us and coming from uphill.

Ronald, one the 3^rd year students brings me into the classroom where I am supposed to hold my lecture on Supply Chain Finance. 



On my way to the lecture


The session gets quite extensive, but we manage to work along the agenda I defined for myself and by 11:45 we are done. The students participated quite well by asking questions and I have the impression that the session in general was well received.

Over lunch in the staff canteen (local dish: Matoke and peas with peanut sauce), Oliver, Geoffrey, Felix and myself discuss next steps on the Bank Cooperation Initiative. By the way, the travel ban regarding the Kenyan elections is limited to Kenya, so we will luckily not face any logistical issues regarding the transport of staff and students to Kampala. For the event itself, we agree on Thursday, 14^th March. While GIZ will take care of the logistics (booking of venue, transportation of students), I will now work on the project documentation and start touchbasing with the banks in order to get their buy-in for a participation. Over the next days, Geoffrey will identify a core-team of 5-6 students from 1^st and 2^nd year who will be asked to take forward the project once we leave.

For 4th March, a department day for the staff and students from the Banking department and the Business department is planned. On that occasion, I will hold another lecture on Product Management and Organisation, and Felix will give an overview on potential career options in Banking and the expectations that are set by banks towards graduates joining banks. If time allows, we will complement this session with an overview on social networking and how it can be leveraged for the benefit of students.

In the following department staff meeting we brainstorm ideas, including co-operations with other universities, follow-up activities with local banks after the kick-off workshop in March, more lectures we could potentially teach while we are here and further items – all in all, a multitude of loose ends we will now have to manage and box.  While juggling with all these ideas, we will try to ensure that they do not get lost on the way, however first we want to focus on the projects we are originally here for.

No need to mention where we went for dinner. There are still some white spots on the menu, so we are positive we will have covered everything by the time we leave...!

Sunday, 24.2. - Weekend

Not much action today. Felix visits a service at the Anglican Church in the morning while I have a late breakfast at our place. We meet over lunch in Rwenzori Travellers Inn and, after some shopping, I head back to our apartment to prepare for next week, i.e. my lecture tomorrow morning and the bank cooperation project.  In order to enable all participants a proper planning, we need to come to terms on the exact date and venue for our event with the local banks as soon as possible – I am also planning to visit some banks on Monday and Tuesday of the second week of March and will need to find the appropriate persons to be contacted during next week. In terms of project documentation, I envisage coming up with a package of documents containing terms of reference, a draft memorandum of understanding, an agenda for the kick-off event in Kampala complimented by a participants list as well as a final overview on intermediate results and agreed next steps - quite some work down the road.

Dinner at the Dutchess – we should maybe book a flat-rate on the menu...

Saturday, 23.2. - Up Country

John, our Boda-Boda rider (small motorcycle) picks us up at 6:30 AM and brings us safely to the Dutchess restaurant, where we have quick breakfast before meeting Michel for the tour. I crave for a strong coffee, since the night was noisy with music and chanting - right across the road, the nearby 'Church of Christ' conducted a night service that ended around 5:30 AM, i.e. 30 min before our alarm clocks went off. No chance to get any sleep during the night...!

Starting shortly after 7 AM, we move into the countryside and hike along swamps with impressive papyrus plants, extensive tea plantations, and many small villages. The tour's highest point is a hill above Kyaninga Lodge and the nearby crater lake, which proves to be a beautiful piece of land (and place to stay).

After 30km walking distance on a quite hot day with not so many clouds, we truly enjoy a cold beer at the Mountains of the Moon hotel and take a Boda-Boda for the way home. Barbecue at Felix' (#2) place with Oliver Schmidt from GiZ and family

Friday, 22.2. - Speeding up

I meet with Geoffrey in the morning to discuss the potential agenda on the Financial Chain business lecture. So far, Factoring has not been part of the teaching agenda, so I have to think about how I can make the best use of the 3 hours that are reserved for the session. Until noon, the agenda more or less stands and I will use the remaining time until Monday to think it over and do some finetuning.

For lunch, we meet Moureen who kindly arranged a meeting at KCB with Marco, the branch manager. He facilitated a 2-month internship for Moureen during her studies. We have a very fruitful discussion on the existing cooperation between KCB and the MMU and also get some insight in the general market environment for banks in Uganda as well as the core business of the Fort Portal branch. Marco kindly refers me to the HR department of KCB in Kampala, so I already have my first contact for the banking cooperation project.

Shortly afterwards, we meet Margret and join her for a visit to Centenary Bank, where she worked as an intern. We meet with Gideon, the Fort Portal branch supervisor. Also here I can obtain an HR contact in the Kampala headoffice I can touchbase with in order to push forward the banking cooperation project.

Over the next days, I will put together an overview of the contacts I have gathered so far and write an action plan on how we want to onboard as many banks as possible for the kick-off event that is scheduled for the second week of March.

Overall, it was a very productive day with some positive surprises and constructive meetings with very helpful and friendly local folks. Apart from our business conducted today, we look forward to making a one-day hiking trip with Michel from the Dutchess Restaurant tomorrow.

Thursday, 21.2. - Preparing for the next weeks

We pass the morning with 'university homework' - i.e. preparations for our courses on cash conversion, product management and factoring. For lunch we are meeting with Moureen and Margret in order to learn more about their internships with the banks where they worked as interns (KCB and Centenary Bank). In the afternoon, Felix meets with Geoffrey to discuss the agenda of his lecture in more detail and I finalise the translation of my lecture on product management and organisation, closed by another run up the dusty track into the mountains.
Dinner at our all-time favorite local restaurant 'The Dutchess', a decent place under Dutch management offering home-made dishes.

Wednesday, 20.2. - Editorial comment

2 editorial comments:

Language:
To the readers in Germany: I decided to write this blog in English, since there are readers from all over the world who are interested in the progress of this project. Currently I see readers from Germany, USA, UK, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Uganda and Venezuela. Said that, I kindly ask the German speakers to tolerate my choice. Once back, I will be happy to give a verbal summary in German.

Fotos:
You may wonder why there are not yet any fotos shown in this blog.

Reason 1)
is of purely technical nature, since the version of the browser on my laptop does not allow to attach fotos. I am working on this issue, so please bear with me. We are taking photos, however this brings me to

Reason 2)
In Uganda, like in many other countries of the world, it is not common to take fotos of people, especially without asking. That makes taking fotos a bit more difficult - in some cases we even experienced a certain extent of aggressiveness from just carrying a camera around.
We fully respect this and want to act as guests rather than intruders, so we kindly ask for your patience in that respect.

Wednesday, 20.2. - Welcome to MMU

We are picked up by MMU's dean Oliver Schmidt in the morning and share the ride with two 3rd year students in the backseat. As a hobby MTB and dirt bike rider, I would actually enjoy the road and its rural condition to the campus - sitting on the backseat and bouncing around on the axle of GIZ's jeep this is a different kind of experience...!

After an extensive tour through the university campus and catching some curious glances from students at the new 'Muzungu's' (white men) on the block, we sit down in the canteen together with Oliver and Geoffrey (heading MMU's BBDF section) and discuss the agenda for the next weeks and the topics we want to cover.  Regarding the FI cooperation project, it is planned to have a workshop in Kampala in the second week of March with staff and students from the university as well as many local banks as possible. We will have to see how this is going to materialize, since there is a general travel ban from GIZ for security reasons on the whole country starting 28.2. - 15.3. due to the elections in Kenya that are scheduled for this period.
Our discussion group is extended with Margret and Moureen, two 3rd-year students, and soon the list of topics we want to cover in the next weeks grows - so far, we have planned the following activities:
- 4 sessions / lectures on Working Capital and the corporate cash conversion cycle
- 1 session / lecture on Financial Supply Chain business, potentially a follow-up advanced session on factoring and reverse factoring
- 1 session / lecture on Product Management and Organisation
- Visiting of local banks where Margret and Moureen had worked as interns
- Establishment of a student core team from the 1st and 2nd year generation to take forward the bank cooperation project after our leave
- Feasibility thoughts on kicking off further activities of students by establishing relationships with global student associations.
Over and above such 'content matters', Felix and myself could quickly convince the university staff with our idea of actively involving the students into our initiatives rather than just offering them assistance in finding an internship or job after their exam. After all, we agreed our goal should be to make ourselves dispensable and enable the students as well as the staff to carry on the initiatives on their own. In that respect, we want to identify some key stakeholders among the students who can act as 'subject matter experts' in the future when we are away, who can also hand over their acquired knowledge to the following generations of students.

On the way back for lunch to 'downtown' Fort Portal, Philip shows us around the agricultural faculty where we get an insight into MMU's activities on the farming sector as well as the health faculty where the local population can receive treatments - currently, vision and eye-fitness is the trending topic, so we saw a lot of optical tests going on while we were there.

We pass the late afternoon with Felix participating in the weekly 'Muzungu' football match with a local referee on the grounds of the Mountain Moon hotel and myself exercising a 1h run through the countryside up to the university campus. Difficult to say what the biggest challenge was: the dust and exhaust of all kinds of motored vehicles or the 150 meters in height I made. However, any such inconveniences were compensated by the friendly people I passed along the way.

Tuesday, 19.2. - Transit to Fort Portal

10 AM: after an odyssey-like ride through the city of Kampala to the dental clinic, Dr. Tom fixes Mr. Christian's top right molar with a patch of the good old composite. A subsequent consultancy call with home lets me waive Dr. Tom's  friendly offer to mandate him for more extensive dental restructuring over the next weeks - pending the sustainability of today's fix, this will have to wait until I am back in Frankfurt.
Just in time and as promised, our drivers Patrick and Thadeus from MMU pick us up from the Sheraton at 1:30 PM. Their ride from Fort Portal took them about 5 h (for 300 km), so we expect to arrive there at 6:30. On the quite bumpy detour through one of Kampala's suburbs to the main road, Felix pointedly observes the quality of the roads  is not too far away from those in Cologne. Actually, there are more noteworthy parallels between Cologne and Kampala: both cities deal with unfinished  subway projects - at least Cologne by now can boast with one train commuting between 2 stations while Kampala can  only offer a  subway entrance, but no subway at all. Kampala's ancient city library however is still standing...

Kampala Subway - 'Godot' Line ...

The Ugandan National Library - still standing strong

After a 5h transit  along an uncounted number of huts, fruitstands and schools as well as over an even less countable number of traffic pacifying bumpers we finally reach Fort Portal, our final destination and workplace for the next 3-4 weeks.
After checking in at the Fort Portal Paradise Lodge, dinner at the Mountains of the Moon hotel with Oliver Schmidt (who recently became dean of the faculty), Philipp and Felix (#2), all three from GIZ. More facts about the university: founded 7 years ago, ca. 1.500 students as of today with roughly 110 students going for the financial industry - scattered across 3 years, i.e. ca. 40 students per semester. After all, we are getting closer to our target group and finally can start the project work we are here for.

Monday, 18.2. - Welcome to Kampala

Morning meeting with Christoph Zipfel from GIZ to discuss the agenda and logistics for the next 4 weeks. 'Basic' shopping: 2 local SIM cards for our private phones, which turned out to be a medium bureaucratic nightmare keeping us busy for half the day. Still, we had enough time to snoop around some recommended shops like Aristoc (Books) and Banana Boat (local souvenirs).

Lunch with Christoph Zipfel and Markus Exenberger (also from GIZ), who gave us an interesting update on GIZ's activities in the energy sector and ongoing public private partnerships with Indian and German companies on building a pan-African decentral mobile telephone and power generation net, mainly based on solar energy.

Tough luck: During lunch, one of my dental fillings took its leave. Not the best prerequisite to enter into a 3-week stay 6h away into the Wild! Thanks to the Kampala German commmunity, an appointment with 'Dr. Tom' is arranged for 9 AM tomorrow to fix the issue, which hopefully will suffice to ensure my dental survival until my return to Germany - or at least Kampala.

Dinner with Anna, a German expat and political advisor from Munich in the very recommendable Bay Restaurant directly located at Lake Victoria, followed by a serious snoop into the most important pubs in Kampala such as Miki's Bar and the Capital Club.

Sunday, 17.2. - Arrival in Kampala

Felix and myself have safely arrived in Kampala. To all those who warned us: No, there was no hassle in Addis Abbaba, all flights were on time and also our luggage was there when we exited the border control after a 1h wait to enter into our final destination. Hotel pick-up worked flawlessly and I made myself a millionaire by withdrawing a thick wad of the local currency UGX from a cash dispenser.

To compensate the short and not really comfortable night in the worn-out economy seats of our plane to Addis, we took an afternoon rest at the hotel upon arrival. Having had dinner outside, we sensed it was surprisingly cool after sundown - however still much warmer compared to snowy Germany. So far, things have gone pretty well and we look very much forward to the challenges lying ahead of us.

Friday, 15.2. - Ready for take off

Last day in the office. Drinks and snacks with the team to say goodbye to everyone and close off last projects. Thanks to all those who made the trip possible, which includes the ones who initiated the project, our security and medical staff, the IT, COO and travel administration and many more. In a last-minute exercise we even managed to activate my high-security USB-stick.

Still need to pack my bags and maintain some discipline on what to take (definitely: mosquito repellent!) and what to leave (definitely: winter gloves!). It’s dark and cold outside and the streets are still covered by the last remainders of yesterday’s snow. A glance at the Fort Portal weatherforecast makes me question whether it’s worth at all taking a pullover with me.

Thanks for all the good wishes I have received from various colleagues over the past days and especially to those ones who will cover my absence for the next four weeks! The Deutsche Bank MMU project team will convene on Saturday night 7PM at Frankfurt airport. Take off to Addis Ababa, our interim stopover is scheduled for 9:35 PM. Next update will be from degree of latitude zero.

How did this start?

...as many stories, by coincidence - and a multitude of life-parameters that fit together like cogwheels when decisions need to be made. Being a 'veteran' of Deutsche Bank's Corporate Social Responsibility activities I used to maintain an ongoing relationship with the Indian microfinance bank I had worked for in 2008. Out of this relationship, I found myself in a meeting with a representative of Mann Deshi Bank and our CSR team in Frankfurt, that took place in November 2012. In the context of this occasion the question was raised whether I would be interested in resourcing another CSR project – this time in Uganda!

Things evolved quickly – two weeks and a telephone call later we agreed to go ahead. My bosses, who were not yet aware of my 'extracurricular' activities were surprised, but ultimately supportive of the idea of myself being out of the job for 4 weeks. At this point, it should be mentioned that our team's resource utilization was – mildly formulated – 'slightly above average', which underlines the Bank’s commitment to the idea of corporate social responsibility. 

The following weeks I was busy with preparations on and off the job – closing and kicking off projects, handing them over wherever feasible, informing friends & family, shopping for the ‘jungle experience’, vaccinations against all diseases of this universe, visa, accommodation, flights, transfers, … - a sheer endless list of things one would never think of. In the meantime the second fellow for the project, Felix von Schmeling had joined, covering the first part of the project that is related to teaching students and lecturers.

By January 2013, all dates were set and the mission finally agreed. Felix and myself are expected in Kampala, Uganda's capital city on Sunday, 17. February 2013.

What is this about?

Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Community Partnership Program

Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Community Partnership Program (CCP) is a global volunteering initiative. Since 2008, the bank has sent experts from its various business lines and infrastructure divisions to nonprofit organizations in emerging markets. Typical tasks include advising local management, improving IT systems and developing marketing strategies.
CCP is Deutsche Bank’s flagship program for a number of reasons. As a global financial service provider, Deutsche Bank can share its expertise with its partners, such as microfinance institutions and micro-insurance organizations in emerging markets to help build economic and social structures that are efficient and self-sustaining. At the same time, the program offers Deutsche Bank employees the opportunity to gain personal and professional experience abroad. By learning more about the lifestyles, mentalities and cultures of other people during a several-week stay, they gain valuable new perspectives for their daily work.

GIZ

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is an experienced service provider and assists the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation. GIZ offers demand-driven, tailor-made and effective services for sustainable development.

The project

Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) is Uganda's first and only community-based university, founded in 2005 and based in Fort Portal, Uganda. It is MMU’s  vision to become a leading provider of banking and microfinance teaching and research in Uganda; and a strong partner of the country's financial sector as it prepares for the East African integration.

Mountains of the Moon University offers Uganda's first and only Bachelor course thoroughly tailored to the demand of the financial sector. This Bachelor of Banking and Development Finance (BBDF) aims at forming hands-on, practically skilled job-entrants for regulated financial institutions, in particular commercial banks and microfinance deposit-taking institutions (MDIs).

In a co-operation between Deutsche Bank, GIZ and MMU, the project layout is to second Deutsche Bank volunteers to MMU twice a year in 2013 and in 2014 to add their experience in the field of banking and moreover managerial skills in areas like strategic planning, organisation, HR and public relations.

The planned activities at MMU fall into three main areas: (1) Improving the curriculum and building capacity for teaching staff of the MMU (2) creating linkages and partnerships with local financial institutions for internship programs and lecture series (3) building co-operations with local business associations such as Uganda Banker’s Association to increase the leverage and sustainability of the program.

The initial phase of the project will kick off with two major tasks:

• Support BBDF-teaching directly and indirectly (= mentoring lecturers)
• Organize internship and linkage opportunities for BBDF-students with local financial institutions  in Uganda

The „Bachelor of Banking and Development Finance“ (BBDF) is the corner stone of training banking professionals; graduates are absorbed for job openings in Ugandan banks.
MMU regularly collaborates with the future employers of BBDF-students. At least 6 Ugandan banks work with MMU through internships, research projects and guest lectures and through an advisory board for BBDF. For first Deutsche Bank volunteer-dispatch, the specific objectives are:

• The course unit ‘bank treasury management’ is taught by international standards and is one of the professional cornerstones of the BBDF-course;
• The majority of BBDF-students has found an internship placement in a regulated financial institution;
• The organizational foundations for the advisory council have been laid.

This regular interaction with the ‘buyer’ of its products, i. e. the employers of MMU’s graduates, will make the university relevant to the development of the financial sector in Uganda. Moreover, it will provide BBDF-students with formidable job market entry prospects, and FIs with high potential staff.

The author of this blog

Christian Hausherr, banking professional with a university degree in business administration from University of Bayreuth and a Deutsche Bank career as In-house Consultant and Product Manager for Cash and Trade Solutions  in the Deutsche Bank GTB (Global Transaction Banking) division. Diver, runner, cycler and biker in my free time.