WHO IS WHO: Meet the Winners of 2022 Chief Finance Officers Awards

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants – ACCA in partnership with Deloitte Uganda have announced the winners of seven categories of Chief Finance Officers Awards. The 6^th edition of CFO awards was held at Kampala Serena Hotel on Thursday evening.

Charlotte Kukunda – Country manager – ACCA Uganda noted that CFOs have demonstrated that their role is critical for decision-making and business in general.

“It develops people for leadership roles. 60% of our previous over roll winners have moved on to senior roles within the organizations or elsewhere,” she revealed.

She noted that this is inspirational and enables the creation of a critical mass of seniors to mentor the talent that is aspiring for the profession.

Kukunda revealed that ACCA launched the Inaugural CFO awards for the African continent, benchmarking Uganda’s initiative and giving a stamp for approval.

“While we didn’t get Uganda’s best professional winning, we had a finalist and we also had a Ugandan whom we exported to one of the neighboring countries who won the financial services category.”

She noted that this year, they received 164 nominations which was slightly less than the previous two years.

“This is not a popular vote, it is based on the judges and it requires quality nominations.”

“Observations show that there was an improvement in the functional categories, finance transformation and strategy execution. Sustainability is coming up but not yet there and as usual, we had a very good turn up for the young CFO which continues to attract great participation. The public sector has also improved. Female CFOs participated better this year in terms of nominations,” she said.

Mr. Norbert Kagoro – Country Managing Partner at Deloitte noted that they began this back in 2017 to recognize the role played by heads of finance in transforming businesses.

“We resolved to award excellence thus the idea of CFO awards was mooted. We’ve witnessed a global transformation in many ways, digital, economic, environmental and many more. Through the years, our agenda has been both insightful and futuristic for the role financial professionals play in transformation. Now the next journey is to make sure that the quality of nominees is enhanced and over and above we have embarked on a journey of knowledge transfer through CFO forums. We also embarked on a journey of having CFO masterclass to assist the CFOs of the future,” he noted.

This year’s edition was won by Susan Lamunu Shereni – Head of the Finance and Administration Department at Infectious Diseases Institute as the CFO of the year.

“I’m so excited, I’ve been a CFO for years and this is so amazing. I wish to inspire young aspiring CFOs to keep in their best short, anything is possible.”

 “This takes resilience, diligence, teamwork and commitment,” said Shereni who also bagged Sustainability Award.

Shereni has over 10 years’ experience in project management, Finance and accounting in not-for-profit organizations. In this role, she is responsible for the organization’s continuous Enterprise Resource Planning system improvement, systems of internal control, human resource management, procurement, financial reporting and budgeting.

From her first hands-on experience working with local and international partners, Shereni recognizes and appreciates the complexities around managing financial resources from local and international partners and strives to achieve organizational objectives in an effective, efficient and transparent way.

She is a certified Accountant, a Fellow with Association of Chartered Certified Accounts UK and holds a master degree in business administration with specialism in strategic planning from Herriot Watt University.

Other winners included;

CFO of the Year Runners Up – Julius Katanaka – Head Finance – Wazalendo SACCO

Julius is a two Africa Chief Finance Officer (CFO) award finalist for Financial services award, Small Medium enterprises award 2022, a winner of the Uganda Chief Finance Officer (CFO) award; Sustainability award winner 2021 and Financial reporting (FiRe) awards winner 2021, a result-oriented professional with several years of public/private sector experience in Finance and auditing and risk management.

He has proven capabilities in designing and implementing controls and processes for improved business operations. He is also rich with a vast experience in Internal Auditing and Accounting standards, conscious of corporate governance, risk management and internal control practices, strategic planning, techniques and principles.

Julius is a dynamic and results-oriented professional with 4years international experience in accounting, financial planning, analysis & reporting, programming, auditing, risk management and business support operations in Africa 8years in Public sector and 4 years in the cooperative sector.

His specialties are; Financial Management and Accounting, Financial analysis and budgeting, Program monitoring & Performance Evaluation, Audit and Compliance reviews, Organizational Capacity assessment, Review of Governance and Oversight functions, Internal Control Evaluation and Risk Assessment, Fraud Risk assessment and Investigation, and organizational capacity development.

Julius holds Master of Science in Professional Accountancy from the University of London.

Young CFO and Strategy Awards – Andrew Ssekamwa – CFO at I&M Bank

Andrew, who also bagged two awards is an experienced Chief Financial Officer with a demonstrated history of Budgeting, risk management and compliance across a variety of industries including financial services, manufacturing, hospitality, FMCG and retail.

He has a strong financial professional skilled in Financial Management reporting to Senior Leadership as well as project management and integration of both external and internal data to meet the needs of the business.

Andrew also has excellent analytical skills and demonstrated ability for problem-solving.

He has previously worked with Movit Products Limited as Head of Finance and Finance Manager at Standard Chartered Bank.

From July 2015 to June 2016, Andrew was Financial Reporting Accountant at SABMiller. He also worked with PwC as Assistant Audit Manager from July 2013 to June 2015.

He holds Master of Business Administration from the University of London and Makerere University’s Bachelor of Statistics, Development Economics and International Development.

Public Sector Award – Richard Byarugaba – Executive Director Finance Bank of Uganda – BOU

Byarugaba was appointed has worked with Bank of Uganda since 1992 after his Bachelor’s degree.

He studied went Kigezi High School before joining Makerere University in 1988 where he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (Accounting).

He also obtained a Masters in Finance for Development Degree in 1998. He is a Fellow of the prestigious Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in the UK and is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPAU)

At the Central Bank, he has worked in various departments, namely, Banking Supervision, Domestic Financial Markets, Internal Audit, National Payments Systems, and Banking.

Mr. Byarugaba has been instrumental in marketing and increasing the uptake of the Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF). This has become a success story and a case study for many administered funds.

He chairs the Investment sub-committee that makes tactical decisions on the investment of the National Foreign Reserves. This is in addition to chairing other committees especially the Board of Trustees for the Bank of Uganda defined contribution retirement scheme.

Financing Transformation Award – Moses Aman – CFO at Hima Cement

Moses is a multi-skilled management and finance professional with over 14 years’ progressive working experience in Uganda, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

Before joining Hima Cement, Aman was Audit Manager at PwC Uganda