Sylvester Kizito is one of those rare Ugandans who are very hard working. He has been through the furnace of life and seen it all. After completing senior six in one of the schools in rural Fort Portal, he was fortunate enough to get admitted to University on an evening program. Being self-sponsored, life has been very challenging. Around 2006, during his final year at campus, he applied and got accepted for internship at one of the banks as a teller. This was a turning point for him. Aware of his background, he started saving 40% of his monthly salary.…
Fraud in banks on the increase
The total combined gross revenue of twenty six (26) commercial banks in Uganda was Ugx. 1.94 trillion (US $750 million) in 2011. It increased to US $810m in 2012. The total cost of doing banking business was Ugx. 1.34 trillion (US $515m) in 2011. That is a 69% cost to income ratio (CIR)! It means that for every 100 shillings each bank earned, 69 were spent. This is quiet telling of the level of inefficiency in the sector. With a CIR averaging below 55.1%; UK, Greek, and Irish banks have high profitability despite a large portfolio and demanding clientele base.…
The Women in my life; thanks for the love
Today we celebrate the International Womens day. What a special day it is. It is tough to imagine life without Women. The special ones are of course my first and only wife, Audrey Amumpaire; she keeps tolerating my shortcomings and has helped me grow into a man. “Almost is not enough. You must win or you must win”, this advice from my wife has helped me in many ways most of all to choose my battles wisely. If I know I don’t have what it takes to win the war, there is no reason of getting into it in the…
Why do good staff commit fraud?
The 2014 Report To The Nations (RTTN) by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) has revealed that “The vast majority of occupational fraudsters are first-time offenders; only 5% had been convicted of a fraud-related offense prior to committing the crimes in our study. Furthermore, 82% of fraudsters had never previously been punished or terminated by an employer for fraud-related conduct. While background checks can be useful in screening out some bad applicants, they might not do a good job of predicting fraudulent behavior. Most fraudsters work for their employers for years before they begin to steal, so ongoing employee…
My Golf expedition | The Golf basics| Day 1: 29th July 2014
I never thought that I would love Golf that much. My first day in the greens has been a wonderful adventure. Today, 29th July 2014, was my first day at the Kampala Golf Club. My teacher, Mr. Deo Akope, took me through the basics. For a better experience, I needed a Golf kit and some balls. These are not the balls you might be thinking about. The Golf balls I am talking about are very small, hard and white. I think the choice of white color is to enable the player/s easily find the ball in the greens after hitting…
Lesson from a highway driver for your career success
One of the mistakes a top manager made early in my career was praising me before my seniors. When I worked on my first job as a temporary staff I was assigned to scan manual clients’ account opening forms into digital format as the institution was migrating from a manual to an automated system. The manual forms had accumulated to a huge backlog. Thanks to my IT skills, I was able to adjust the scanner settings from default to user preference. Within a short period, the backlog was no more. This earned me a spot award prize. At the award,…
