Working on Finance in Uganda

Angela Hohl- Abichedid

Angela Hohl-Abichedid a Business Development Manager for Philips Lighting USA worked with Tumwine in Uganda who runs 'House of Success', a small and short term loans company based in Kampala. They have just finished their 12 sessions together. 

"Getting started was much easier than I expected. My client spoke English very well, was very open, very eager to succeed and we had the good fortune of a quite reliable internet connection which made video conferencing and file sharing seamless.

We got down to business right away as my client had specific ideas of what he wanted to accomplish: to rapidly grow his business. During the first sessions I tried to uncover as much information as possible while learning about my client’s expectations. After three sessions we were ready to agree on realistic goals. 

Overall I found that my client knew his business very well but needed help with financial record keeping and analysis. I spent a lot of time preparing and teaching financial analysis tools adapted to his business and easy to use. A session would last between 1 – 2 hours and we also communicated via email and WhatsApp in-between sessions especially when sessions had to be re-scheduled. My client now keeps some financial records and is aware of risk. He expressed a lot of gratitude for my help and we still keep in touch.  

Overall I enjoyed this project very much as it challenged me to solve very different business problems than I normally do in my day job. I hope I made a positive contribution in my client’s life. "