Wednesday, 13.3. – Day '-1'

Again, a tight agenda for today, and, as every day, some surprises coming along. We meet with Geoffrey at 9:30 in the hotel and leave for our visit to United Bank of Africa, which is supposed to be a 15min walk. After 15min, I ask Geoffrey where the bank is and he indicates a building 200m away from us. I freeze – this is not United Bank of Africa, but Bank of Africa! So where is United Bank of Africa and how do we get there within the next 10min?! We ask a police officer who luckily guides us into the right direction and – more luckily – the bank we are looking for is also just 100m away.

We have a good meeting with the UBA HR department and can win them to participate in our workshop tomorrow. 

The three MMU musketeers at UBA

Until noon, I maintain my daily routine of calling the banks that have not confirmed their attendance so far and receive more positive feedback, so we are gradually increasing the number of participants into the direction of 10.

At 12, Christoph Zipfel picks us up and we go to Hotel Africana (coincidentally the venue where we will have the event tomorrow) and have lunch with Joachim Düster, the Deputy Head of German Embassy in Uganda and his Colleague Mrs. Blume, who just spent her first 10 days of a 3-year stay in Uganda. 

Lunch with the German embassy at Hotel Africana

On the occasion of being in Hotel Africana, I meet with the hotel manager to discuss tomorrow’s event and arrange the setup of the three conference rooms we have booked. A while later, Jackie from GIZ joins our discussion and kindly gives me a lift back to the Sheraton once we are done. The rest of the afternoon is spent with more calls and emails to banks, and at the end of the day it seems we have finally reached all banks we have initially targeted. If everything comes as planned, we hope to see 7-10 banks on tomorrow’s event. We will see! Our pickup for tomorrow to Hotel Africana is agreed for 7:45. It will be a busy day!

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.

Monday, 11.3. – Welcome back to Kampala

We start the day with a healthy breakfast at the hotel buffet and I use the rest of the morning to call some more banks in order to follow up on those who have not reacted on my mails so far.

At 11, we meet Christoph Zipfel from GIZ and debrief him on our time in Fort Portal and discuss potential next steps in the MMU project. For lunch we meet Martha Gutierrez, GIZ country director and Alan Walsch, Regional director for international services at GIZ and exchange our thoughts on the GIZ work in Uganda and potential future co-operations with Deutsche Bank on a more general level. A very fruitful discussion for both GIZ and Deutsche Bank, as we share the same interests in how we can further work together and in specific push forward our joint project with the Mountains of the Moon University.

Alan Walsch, Christian Hausherr, Martha Guiterrez, Felix von Schmeling and Christoph Zipfel at the 'Il Patio' in Kampala

On the occasion of having lunch, my 3-weeks old souvenir from Dr. Tom, my favourite Kampala dentist takes its leave. So his work was precisely on the spot and I am only grateful it happens today and not earlier while I was in Fort Portal. So the program for the rest of the afternoon is easily defined: Meet my old friend Dr. Tom again and fix the issue – this time hopefully with a longer-lasting solution...

Sunday, 10.3. – Transit to Kampala

All in all, a ‘no-frills’ day. Final good bye to Heleen and Michael from the Dutchess and their lovely staff, and after breakfast we leave together with Oliver’s wife Bettina, her daughter with maid as well as one more MMU staff member for Kampala. It is however noteworthy that after nearly 3 weeks in Fort Portal this is the first (and obviously last) morning where we have breakfast inside and not on the terrace, since the rain that started last night still continues and has quite considerably cooled down the air.

Luckily we can leave the clouds behind us the closer we get to Kampala, and, once arrived, we are back in sunny weather. The evening is spent with an early dinner, calls with home and preparations for next week.

Editorial comment:
Closing the circle of cross-referencing, we are happy to see our mission being reflected on our employer's webpage:

https://www.deutsche-bank.de/csr/de/mitarbeiter_engagement/8061.html
https://www.db.com/csr/en/corporate_volunteering/two_deutschbankers_on_education_mission_in_uganda.html

Saturday, 9.3. – A Ugandan Hike

Our last full day in Fort Portal starts with an early breakfast at 7:30 and a walk to the close-by meeting point where the local Kabarole Rotary Chapter is gathering for a hike into the Ruwenzori Mountains. The gathering is Ugandan-style, i.e. proposed time to meet is 8AM and around 9AM we leave by car to our starting point, the Kichwamba Technical College.

There is a sad story about this college we learn about when visiting the well-secured campus and mass-grave of 80 students who were killed in a raid in 1998, when ADF rebels from Kongo attempted to ‘free’ Uganda and attacked villages and public institutions over night, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them.

Finally, at 10AM we kick off with a group 50 to 60 people and walk down the main road, just to turn left after 1km and move into the mountain. The terrain is surprisingly steep and the group quickly falls apart into faster and slower hikers. It takes me about an hour to get up to the intermediate destination, a very basic military camp about 1000 meters in height above our starting point. The rest in the cool wind, enjoying a gorgeous view over the sunny valley well compensates every hiker for the quite exhaustive climb up there.

We made it!

Felix mastering the last meters

Accompanied by a team of armed soldiers (protecting us against wild elephants, rebels and any other threats the terrain may offer) we follow our guide into a deep, jungle-like bamboo forest along a well hidden ‘Ho Chi Minh’-style single trail. Luckily, there are no rebels, unluckily, also no elephants... 

Safely guarded in the bamboo forest

A very green environment

After walking another hour and turning back the same way, we take the tour down again, and due to the steep terrain, going down unfortunately is not much easier than climbing up.

Half way down, Maria from Kluge’s guest farm has arranged a quick bite of goat meat and rice, and – sensing the daily weather change after some quite sunny hours – we continue our way down. Right on time – since the rain just starts when we sit in the car. On the way back, we are going through an extraordinarily violent thunderstorm and pass a telephone pole that gets struck by a lightning and explodes in the very moment we pass it. Quite an event...!

We spend the early evening with the hiking party at the Toro Golf Club for more goat meat and local food and later continue joining Philipp’s party at his home.

On business, I receive another confirmation from one bank on their participance in next week’s workshop – this already makes four banks at least, which is good news. Our transfer to Kampala is booked for tomorrow at 10AM, so that – depending on the traffic – we hope to be there during late afternoon.

Friday, 8.3. – Closing off

Fourth and last lecture for Felix today, all student groups presenting the results of their field studies. The session – originally planned for 3h, is extended until 1:30 in order to settle all questions from the students, who turned out to be quite active in presenting their cases. The lecture is closed with Felix handing over the 'bible' on treasury management to Geoffrey.

Completed Balance Sheet - happy faces!

Triple C: Cash conversion completed

The Kiko Tea Company Team in action

Hold on tight - the whole wisdom of bank treasury management

In the meantime I draft the feedback questionnaires for next week’s workshop we will hand out to all participants in order to get an insight on how the event was perceived by everyone and what can be improved the next time.

Student's feedback questionnaire for 14. March

Bank's feedback questionnaire for 14. March

At 2PM, I meet Geoffrey at HOFOKAM, a local microfinance institute where we want to discuss potential internship opportunities for MMU students with the branch manager. It seems that the branch currently has no need for further interns as the message at the front door clearly says:

The message is clear ...!

Unfortunately there is no one there today, since it is a public holiday, so we decide to meet later to discuss next week’s agenda.

Back at the Dutchess, I meet Oliver Schmidt and Felix, who finally return from the university after a long session and crave for lunch. At 4PM, my student group arrives and we go through next week, their role and some logistical questions. It is the last time we see each other in Fort Portal and we agree to stay in contact, as I am also interested in their further career as students and bankers in spe.

Thursday, 7.3. – Invitation Day

‘Home Office’ day. Since there is a public holiday tomorrow, I have to shift my meeting with my student group and after some calls and exchange of mails manage to move it to tomorrow 4PM in the Dutchess.

The morning and early afternoon are spent with sending out 11 invitation mails to all the banks we would like to see next week, providing them with the latest marketing brochure and the agenda I yesterday have agreed with Oliver Schmidt.

Hard to believe this takes half a day – however, still true. The internet connection is so poor that some mails take an eternity to get through. Apart from that, the browser occasionally simply breaks down and dematerialises my mail drafts into unknown black holes of the Ugandan cyberspace. So, whoever received those mail drafts and feels invited – we will see next week in Kampala who will show up!

Anyway – by early afternoon I have managed to send out the invitation with all details to 11 banks in total and already by early evening have received three written confirmations from major banks they will attend. This indeed is rewarding since it demonstrates we seem to be on the right path with our concept.

I close my email odyssey with putting together a status summary for GIZ and MMU (which takes another 3 attempts and 1.5 hours) and finally join Felix and Oliver Schmidt for tonight’s excursion to Kyaninga Lodge, where we have reserved a table for an (early) farewell dinner for GIZ (Oliver & family, Felix, Philipp) and ourselves, since our time in Fort Portal is moving into its final phase.

No photos today. The ‘MMU Dutchess Garden Office’ – my primary working space today – is not really to new and my facial expression on various system outages while working on the mails should better not be documented...! Perspectives for tomorrow look much friendlier and less IT-driven, since I will meet a Microfinance institution together with Geoffrey at 2PM to discuss the German concept of 'Dual studies' and see my student group at 4PM in order to instruct them for next week.