By Andreas Schühly
Whenever I tell someone that I am in Uganda to study Business at Makerere University people roll their eyes –both in Germany and Uganda. However I assume it as a great opportunity that started in spring 2014 when my home university, the University of Tuebingen, started a new Master’s program called International Business (Africa). During the first year, students do their core curriculum in Germany with the highlight of being taught by former Head of the International Monetary Fund and former President of Germany Horst Köhler on Doing Business in Africa.
The next two semesters are taught in two different African countries. I selected the universities with the highest reputation. So I currently do my exchange semester at Makerere University and will have another exchange semester next year at University of Cape Town in South Africa. At both institutions I am attending the MBA program. To get more ground experience I am also doing an internship with everjobs Uganda, a Pan-African job portal (www.everjobs.ug).
But why did I select a program that focuses on Africa – continent that is not really on the mind when talking about doing business in the West? Exactly this was my motivation. Sub-Sahara Africa is already the fastest growing region with vast opportunities. While facing various challenges like high diversity, Africa persists to be attractive for foreign investors and multinational companies. This creates vast opportunities especially because in 2014, Sub-Sahara Africa accounted for only 1.24% of total German trade. While Germany is a major trade partner for Uganda, the total volume of the trade was in 2013 only 166 million Euro. Uganda exports mainly agricultural goods, such as coffee and fish, and imports machines and chemical products from Germany.
The growth and structural changes have also been acknowledged by politics and businesses. In 2014, the federal German government announced new guidelines for its own African policies to recognize the continent’s new position in the world.
Derived from the new guidelines, a comprehensive approach shall be taken that accounts to the vast opportunities as well as the risks of Africa. Furthermore, German industrial associations have responded to the growing importance of Africa in the recent past. In 2014, BDI, the Federation of German Industries published its own Sub-Sahara Africa strategy to improve the position of German companies on these growth markets. Likewise, the Afrika-Verein der deutschen Wirtschaft, a foreign trade association for German businesses and institutions with economic interests in African states, recently analyzed the potential of African markets to encourage its members to do business here.
But despite all the numbers that are in favor for Uganda – what is my personal experience? Uganda is a great country with the friendliest people I have ever met, an astonishing landscape that is inhabited by a great variety of beautiful animals. However, while traveling and living here, one comes quickly in touch with a major issue: the infrastructure.
Internet access is not comparable to the West, traffic jam is sometimes just horrible and the electricity is not always stable. Further, from a German point of view I see some cultural differences that make doing business sometimes a bit challenging, especially the different perception of time and the bureaucracy. Nevertheless, Uganda is a great country and I am really looking forward to come back soon to see the progress.
The author is an MBA student import from Germany