Tuesday, 12.3. – Gaining traction

A busy day. After breakfast, I reach out to the banks that have not reacted so far and have to find out that in some cases my mail was just not delivered without having received a failure notice. Since it is not that easy to get hold of the respective people in the HR departments, I find myself calling various numbers and talk to all kinds of bank switchboards. Finally, I can arrange for one more meeting that is now scheduled for 10 AM tomorrow.

At 11 AM, we meet Geoffrey in front of Crane Bank, where I had arranged a meeting with the head of the HR department. Our discussion is good and we agree to see each other for our Thursday event, which now makes 5 participating banks in total. So our minimum goal is achieved, any further bank won for Thursday is the ‘extra mile’!

Welcome to Crane Bank

After a quick lunch at the Sheraton, we are picked up by our driver and move over to AMFIU (Association of Micro Finance Institutions of Uganda), where we meet a group of project managers from various Micro Finance Institutions. 

At the AMFIU

The afternoon is reserved for an interactive session on the products they offer in the local market (such as Microfinance Leasing, Mobile Banking, Agricultural Value Chain Finance and Group Lending), followed by a presentation given by me on Product Management and Organisation. 

My AMFIU session on Product Management

It is a fruitful exchange of thoughts and we close the session right on time shortly after 5 PM before we move into the regular traffic jam back into our hotel, where we close the day with our ‘home-call’ with the Head Office in Frankfurt in order to update the team on the progress made to date and our plans for the rest of the week.