June 2013 - Harvesting the project

3 months ago we parted from Kampala and left behind a bunch of ideas and initiatives. In the meantime, Felix and myself have had wrap-up discussions and presentations at home, since our colleagues where interested to see us in person and directly hear from our experience during the 4 weeks in Uganda.

The workshop we had with the banks was a great success. We have received written feedback from all students and the participating banks, and - without going into too much detail - the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. As well the students as the banks were excited about the opportunity to directly speak with each other and exchange their views on expectations, hopes and concerns. Given the reaction that was received from all sides, a rerun of the event appears as a matter of course.

A - intended - side-effect of the interaction with the banks was to raise the attraction of the Mountains of the Moon university towards Ugandan banks. This has worked well, and the university is now looking forward to seeing an HR representative from a major international bank for the next Banking and Microfinance Department Day at the university. Also, incremental opportunities for student internships have opened up: There will be 5 additional internships for MMU students across Uganda (2 in Fort Portal, 2 in Mbarara and 1 in Kasese).

The student group I have worked with has taken ownership of new, student-driven initiatives, aiming at increasing the MMU Banking students' qualification profile and personal skills. Outbreak-groups have been established, focusing on specific subjects such as Risk Management, Data analysis and evaluation, Financial Marketing, Treasury Management, as well as Accounting and Finance. Going forward, these groups will regularly meet, do research, conduct presentations, organize debates and seminars, invite banks to come to MMU and coordinate these activities with the university management.

All these initiatives are very encouraging and, going forward, we trust the footprint we have left during our relatively short time in Fort Portal and Kampala will trigger more action of this kind.
After all, our intention was to help, however in a fashion of planting a seed and enabling the university and its students to continue on their own. This is exactly what is happening now, and we see this development with great satisfaction.

For those who have not read the entire blog due to time constraints or because they came across it at a later point in time, I have uploaded a presentation summarizing the key aspects of the project for anyone who is interested.

In case there should be any further questions, you would like to know more about the project in Uganda or about the Corporate Social Responsibility activities of Deutsche Bank, please do not hesitate to contact me - either via this blog or via one of the social networks I am in (Xing / Linkedin).

What happens next? I do not know. I will continue maintaining the relationship with MMU and the students. I have promised to be there for them in case they have questions or should require my help. Depending on the further development of this relationship, there may be more action worthwile being reported.

Stay tuned - I cannot promise a regular frequency of blog posts for the future, however in case there are any relevant news, you will find them here or on the homepage of the Banking and Microfinance Department.