Saturday, 16.3 – This is it.

Is it? No, it is not. The past four weeks were absolutely exciting and both Felix and I did not regret at any point in time that we had the opportunity of going here, working on the MMU project and meeting so many great people in Uganda. We will keep in touch with the University and the students, since we both share the same interest of bringing forward MMU and support them wherever we can – whether it is out of Uganda or Germany.

We are parting today, since Felix will stay for another week with his wife who will arrive tonight, and I am going back to Frankfurt this afternoon.

I will now finalise the blog for the time being and thank all readers for coming along and accompanying us on our path during the last four weeks. However – stay tuned or sneak in from time to time, since there may be updates in the future in case any follow-up activities with MMU or students are kicked off.

Thank you and good bye from Kampala!

Friday, 15.3. – The longest Night

Wrap-up of the 4 weeks that are behind us with Christoph, Oliver, Geoffrey and Irene in our hotel in the morning. Right after the meeting and saying good-bye for the last time, I take a Boda-Boda to Dr. Tom to do some fine-tuning on my new dental equipment.

The afternoon is quickly spent with packing my stuff and arranging tomorrow’s logistics to the airport. We decide to spend another evening at the Emin Pasha since we liked the venue so much and have a terrific dinner in the beautiful garden.

For our last night, we close the circle and move over to the Capital Pub in Kabalagala, where time quickly passes by with the Friday night crowds flooding into the club.

Thursday, 14.3. – Day 0: The longest Day

Pickup at the Sheraton at 7:40. We sprint through the remainders of the night’s thunderstorm and pouring rain into Oliver’s pickup and crouch into front and back with 5 other students and our luggage. Luckily, the ride to Hotel Africana is not that long and Oliver knows some tricky shortcuts to circumvent the Kampala morning traffic jam.

It is good that we are there so early, as we still have to do some fine-tuning on the arrangement of tables and chairs in the three rooms we have booked so that it is perfect for the event we have planned. At 9AM, we are more or less done and the first students arrive and register.

Around 9:45 I am getting a little nervous, since only two banks have appeared so far. This does not change at 10, our officially planned kick-off time for the workshop and neither at 10:15. We decide to delay the kick-off by 30min and again by 15min, so finally start with the welcome at 10:45 and three banks being present.

During the presentations, we welcome one more bank and move over into our networking session with four banks in total. In groups, the students move from bank to bank and for the first time have a direct interaction with their potential future employers – a very exciting moment for all participants.

Opening the session with Geoffrey

Luckily, we see two more banks appearing later during the workshop, so that we extend our networking event into lunchtime until after 2PM.

Joseph giving insight into Barclays

Doreen and Solomy from Stanbic surrounded by students

Intensive discussions with Rachel from Citi

Reading from the faces and comments we receive from the students and the banks, the workshop proves to be a full success – everyone is very excited and impressed about the opportunity to meet with each other, and we realise this is the first time ever that such an event is being conducted in Uganda. So we are really pioneers!

After lunch, it is time to say good bye to 'our' students from MMU, since they are leaving to Fort Portal on the same day. So we use the time to have some final memory pictures on the lawn of Hotel Africana.

Saying good bye to 'our' students

There is not much time left until our afternoon cocktail reception at the Emin Pasha Hotel begins, so we directly move over and have a coffee there.

Around 5PM, our guests join us for the closing event and we have a beautiful evening with speeches from the German embassy, the Vice chancellor of the Mountains of the Moon University, followed by inspiring discussions among all participants from the university, GIZ, the German embassy and participants from KfW.

Welcome reception with MMU, GIZ, KfW and the German embassy

The 'official' part with the German embassy

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