All Eyes on David Wandera: Why 2026 is a Critical Year for Absa David Wandera enters 2026 at a moment when leadership, timing, and expectation converge. Having moved from acting to substantive Managing Director in May 2025, and as the first Ugandan to lead Absa Uganda, he now carries full responsibility for sustaining one of the country’s strongest banking franchises while delivering his first complete set of results under direct scrutiny. His performance will be read not only as a test of personal leadership, but as an early signal of how successfully Ugandan executives can steward globally embedded institutions at the highest level. With Absa entering a critical consolidation phase and a complex retail integration ahead, 2026 will reveal whether Wandera can convert institutional memory into durable performance and why all eyes are on him.

Jeff WintersFebruary 8, 2026February 8, 2026

As Absa Uganda enters consolidation, 2026 will test David Wandera’s leadership, integration skill, and ability to sustain momentum, carrying national expectations as the bank’s first Ugandan Managing Director forward decisively.

There is a saying that when you are entrusted with the responsibility of representing your country, you must give your very best, because you are carrying the weight and expectations of an entire nation. Few corporate leaders in Uganda embody that reality more clearly in 2026 than David Wandera, the Managing Director of Absa Uganda, and the first Ugandan to lead the bank in its 90-plus years history in Uganda. Wandera is now sitting in one of the most consequential seats in the country’s financial system. As head of a systemically important bank embedded within a global banking group, his…

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