Otoa is now leaving Stanbic Business Incubator Ltd to take up a new Chief Corporate Affairs Officer role at the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC)⏤ a wholly government of Uganda-owned company that runs the government’s commercial interests in the upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas sectors.
He joins UNOC just in time- as the country ramps up activities towards first oil, but also amidst a thickening anti-fossils energy transition agenda, itself oiled by climate change. He is however not an outsider in the mainstream oil and gas business, having been, between September 2013 – June 2018, the Public Affairs Coordinator/ National Content Leader at Total E&P Uganda. He has also been a Local Content Advisor for the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum as well as a Member of the Advisory Forum for the Skills for Oil and Gas Africa (SOGA).
The CEO East Africa Magazine’s Executive Editor, Muhereza Kyamutetera, sat him down for a candid conversation on several issues.
For starters, for those who don’t know you, tell about yourself. Who is Tony Otoa?
I am Tony Otoa. I am very passionate about so many things, especially leadership, but more so the conversations around development and economic and social development.
These are things that I’ve been really passionate about for quite some time now. If I look at my career, it’s really been around local content ⏤supporting local businesses to get into the oil and gas sector. My most recent role at Stanbic has been very much about supporting local businesses to thrive, survive and become better. So all in all, I’m really just a person who’s really passionate about empowering businesses, especially local businesses and local SMEs and bridging the gap or the gaps in the areas where they’re really struggling and supporting them with the right knowledge, information so as to enable them to become competitive and supporting them in any other way we can.
You have quite an interesting background. In your past, you have done all sorts of things and ended up here, in the Public Affairs; Stakeholder Relations space and teaching SMEs how to do business in a business-like way. Is this what you always wanted to be? How did you end up here?
Many people ask me that question, but I would say I really don’t know. I can’t quite tell with precision. But I think everything I’ve done has been probably a ladder or a step towards getting me where I am today.
I started as a turn-boy, and moved into journalism, then became a DJ and then became a chef. Then, of course, I studied international relations and then law, which I’ve never practiced by the way, even for a single day.
But I think my moving into or coming back to Uganda and moving into the oil and gas sector really helped me understand the sector, which probably has also been a very huge step in the next role that I’m going to be taking on. But all said and done, being part and parcel of the local content conversations in the sector, as well as the policies and the laws that are shaping it, has been a great opportunity and journey for me.
Looking back – it is almost 4 years since you became CE Stanbic Incubator- after a couple of years in similar roles elsewhere. What has your career and especially these last 4 years, taught and or changed you about your views about or what is the problem with our SMEs and the ecosystem around them that doesn’t allow them to thrive as they should?
I think over the years that we have been doing this at Stanbic, there have been so many interesting touchpoints. Things that we sometimes think we know or we assume that we know but probably we were not in the real know.
I think, one of the things that has been really interesting and that I’ve learnt is that SMEs face similar but numerous problems. These range from access to markets, access to finance, and limited business knowledge⏤ you can have the finances but then have very limited business knowledge. It has been a journey of understanding and addressing a lot of these issues and working towards creating a conducive working environment for SMEs.
For example, you are aware of the ongoing public spat between the Uganda Revenue Authority and the Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA), but the truth is that taxes are an obligation that we all have to pay. And about EFRIS- I mean the whole world is going digital and governments too are going digital and taxation too. But if the businesses do not have this knowledge, it becomes very difficult for them to survive and that leads to them having higher failure rates or closing shop.
What we have seen, in the time that we’ve been here is that if we can arm these businesses with the right information promptly and we get the support of partners like URA, URSB and other government and non-government actors, then you see more and more businesses thriving. You actually see businesses survive longer. So, there are numerous issues that we’ve actually seen, but of course, the typical one that stands out is access to finance. It is one of those critical ones.
One issue that is hardly talked about that heavily impacts on the failure rate of businesses in Uganda, is corruption. Corruption hinders the competitiveness of SMEs, as well as eats into their margins and in some cases, money that is supposed to be for the taxman ends up being swallowed up by corruption. In your conversations with SMEs, has this issue come up and what has been the advice on how to deal with it?
The truth is that corruption is evident. It happens. It is prevalent. It’s a bad thing. But a lot of businesses find it an easier way of getting a contract or are faced with making that hard decision. Does it make business sense? It doesn’t of course make business sense.
That’s why you see there is a lot of shoddy work out there because some of the money that would have been used on executing a project is spent taking care of someone or some people and you end up with shoddy work because you don’t have enough money to do that. We’ve seen or heard this among a lot of our incubatees, especially in the construction sector.
Can I say it’s a good thing? No, it’s a bad thing and it’s something that we always discourage when we are doing our modules, especially in business ethics. We try as much as we can to speak about what is ethical, what is right and what businesses should do. But we live in a society that has embraced this culture and it will take some time for us to wipe it out.
But I think if we can do things differently, for instance, digitizing how we do our bidding and the entire workflow management and the payments- if we can minimise and where we can eliminate as much human interaction as possible, then we can solve some of these problems of corruption.
And that is one of the things we’re trying to do with a lot of the businesses that we talk to and in our engagements with government. We encourage them to digitise their process and support them on how to create efficiencies in their processes.
Looking back, there are things that you wanted to do 4 years ago when you became the CE of the Stanbic Incubator. On self-reflection, today, are you where you wanted to be? What are the key highlights in these 4 years?
I think there are so many milestones. I’ll be very honest with you, when I look at the businesses that we started off with that are doing these massive contracts in the oil and gas space especially, it’s a beautiful story.
When I look at GCC for instance, managing the biggest oil and gas camp in the oil area, that’s an amazing story. When I look at City Medicals that we trained and now they’re managing Medicare in the oil and gas sector, again that’s another good one. Look at companies like Inspector Africa that are managing about USD8 million in contracts⏤ I mean, that is a great story to talk about.
But more importantly, when I look at the businesses we’ve trained⏤ we began with just 34 businesses and so far we’ve done about 3,000 businesses; we have given and or facilitated so many businesses to get money, and not just from the bank but also through alternative sources of financing such as private equity, grants or catalytic funds, there is so much that has been done.
One of the best things that is going to possibly happen over the next few months is going to be the morphing or the changing of the Stanbic Incubator from what it is into a foundation, which means that it will be able to create more impact; do so much more. When I look at our contribution, not just as the bank but also what we have achieved together with our stakeholders, it is massive.
In terms of milestones, we have grown exponentially. We have touched every part of this country. You can see our footprint in many of these places. We have trained the lowest of the lowest because remember we began with the typical big businesses but we are now looking at the micro businesses at the district levels. That level of impact, including on the women and the youth who are involved is something that we’re proud of. So in all honesty, I think we have grown; we have grown too fast, which was a bit scary, but I think with the team that we have put together⏤ a great team which has grown as well, we’ve been able to do at least this successfully.
Away from the impact created by the Incubator under your leadership and looking inward, what impact do you leave behind on the team and organisation itself? What has changed?
We have built our team from just three people to now 16 core staff and then of course over 20 external staff who are affiliated to us. We’ve also grown our locations. Remember, we were just in Kampala and now we are pretty much in over 40 districts. We have been able to take on more programs. Initially remember we had just one program⏤ enterprise development, but now we have more than 10 different programs that we’re offering. We had only one partner- Stanbic Bank, when we had just started, now we have more than 10 partners, including GIZ, the French Embassy, MasterCard, Palladium and many more.
To me, that speaks to the fact that many more people are making sense of what we are doing in terms of impact and that is great. It’s really interesting when we look at the numbers of how many people we’ve brought out of the low economic situations into great situations that they can speak about. Internally, if you look at the infrastructure that we have put together to support our entrepreneurs such as great spaces for them to train, collaborate, and also meet, it has really been a worthwhile journey.
You know we have tiers of the SMEs that we work with- UGX50 million and above, then UGX10 million and UGX5 million and then the micro. What we have seen is that while tracking revenue across all bands, there has been growth in all parameters in almost all the tracked businesses. There’s been growth in not just the finances but also the governance to the extent that the bank is willing to lend to most of them which wasn’t the case when we started.
Looking back, are there any regrets about what remains undone? What would you tell or have told your successor about the role and what lies ahead?
I wouldn’t call those regrets or something that is undone. I would probably say, there’s just more work to be done. We/I have probably just contributed a tiny dot in the wide ocean of needs that need to be met. There’s so much work to be done.
I would advise my successor to continue advocating for SMEs. To never give up. To continue pushing the agenda for SMEs, as well as partnerships and supporting policies to make sure that businesses can thrive and grow sustainably. It’s not been an easy one and it’s not an easy job and everyone has different ways in which they handle this issue of SME support, but I think there’s a lot of work to be done. We need more SME ambassadors, and more people to come on board and support the SMEs, as well as spread the story.
Does your new role at UNOC connect with what you have been doing at the Stanbic Incubator?
Yes. The Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) is a good opportunity for me to still keep doing the things that we’ve been doing with the incubator. Remember, I masterminded the MOU between UNOC and Stanbic Incubator in 2020. The MoU aimed at promoting national content through capacity building, training entrepreneurs as well as knowledge and sector information sharing, and enterprise development. So, in my new role, I will be activating the MoU even more. So both roles are about supporting local content, driving local businesses and giving them an opportunity to get involved in Uganda’s oil and gas story. At the Stanbic Incubator, I have been at the forefront of supporting SMEs, so this is a continuation of that partnership and what has been a beautiful story.
You are joining UNOC at an interesting time when the energy transition question and climate change as well as the push to drop fossils from our energy equation versus the potential that these newly found oil and gas resources can do for the developing world. The oil and gas industry is also being expected to do more socially and for the environment. What’s your take on this big energy transition question?
So many things are going to change and UNOC is in a better place to drive this at a national level. I’ll be honest with you, the energy transition conversation is a very complex issue. I think what we can best say is, that it’s important to recognise the importance of, reducing fossil fuels usage, but at the same time, as a country, we need to develop.
It is really about striking a balance with how we’re supporting the conservation of the environment, what we are doing to even make the world or the environment better; the planting of trees as well as the use of technology that can actually support eliminating as much of the dangerous substances into the environment. It’s really about finding a balance and I think finding that balance is key. It’s very important for us to understand that we have to do more to make the environment better; and conserve the environment even more. But it is very important to also remember that for us to develop, we have to leverage our oil and gas resources, responsibly. That’s what’s really key.
Knowing what you know now, on what is holding back our SMEs and in general Ugandan businesses If you woke up the president of the Republic of Uganda, or if you met the president what candidly would you tell him about what needs to change right from the way the SMEs do business to the ecosystem as well as policy and regulatory space?
If I had a chance to sit down with the President, I would emphasise the importance of creating an enabling environment for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises.
When I talk about an enabling environment, I mean a 360° approach⏤ the policy, regulatory and fiscal environment. I would emphasise doing every that creates avenues for them to be able to do more. Things like access to finance to be able to produce more; and access to markets, so they can sell and earn more and create more jobs. Most financial institutions find it difficult to lend to businesses because their interests are elsewhere. I know we have the Microfinance Support Center, but that is just part of the big thing. We can actually do more.
The other key thing is improving on infrastructure especially transport infrastructure to make the logistics end of the business efficient. Someone was complaining over the weekend about why should they continue paying taxes and then drive on very bad roads that destroy his goods in transit to the extent that he can’t sell them? So yes, good roads are good for every businessman. Also very key is streamlining the regulatory processes to drive economic growth and prosperity.
If we can streamline those and everyone is in the know; they know what their contribution is and how they can do it, especially the small business guy, I think we will see the SMEs thrive more and contribute more to the national economy. They wouldn’t even have to hide away from the taxman; they would actually contribute more to the national coffers.
Amazingly, but also more importantly, there are other issues like health care and education, which if sorted out and taken care of, the SMEs will be able to concentrate on doing their businesses even better and support the country in raising more revenue.
Looking ahead- what worries you? What excites you?
I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know, because I’ll be honest with you, in our stoic mindset we never worry so much about the future. We let it come as it comes. The only thing that we can do is prepare for it. So there are a lot of uncertainties, but navigating through them every single day is the beauty of the process of life.
So to be very honest with you, when you ask me about my worries for the future, I am open. I think I’m just open and embracing life with its ifs and managing it as we go through it.
The world out there can get fast and furious. The more you grow in life and in responsibility the more you are being called on to do more. And this gets complex requiring you to manage your life more closely and paying attention to what matters. How do you stay sane in this fast lane? Do you have a coping mechanism that you would say is a personal standard?
I have a very interesting regime. We have this 5:00 am club where we do our reflections every morning for about 15 minutes and thereafter I have my normal exercise routine.
But most important to me is my stoic philosophy. One of my favourite lines is by Marcus Aurelius, where he says, “at every moment, ask yourself, is this necessary?”
So that is what I keep saying to myself. For example someone comes and wants to fight you, for instance, on social media, then I will ask myself, “Do I have to respond to this? Do I have to fight back” and then act accordingly.
But also I believe that most times, in life, we have taken other people’s emergencies to be our emergencies and someone’s fight to be our fight and we have failed to focus on what is important for us. So what keeps me grounded is the stoic principles ⏤ of knowing and understanding that sometimes it’s OK to just let it be. It’s OK to just be. It’s OK to just do nothing about it.
I have learned the art of focusing on what’s important and leaving out what is not important. I think that has helped me in so many ways, by not getting into trouble with people for example, but also realising that sometimes some fights are not worth fighting.
I have also come to appreciate that I must continue doing the things that made us who we are. The key things that got us where we are. For me, it’s really about understanding what’s important and prioritising my mental health over anything. Yes, prioritising my mental health over anything, because if you’re mentally not safe or not fine, there’s a huge spiral effect on so many of the things that you want to do. It’s a crucial thing for me to focus on my mind first and then the rest can come.