Uganda's Minister of Finance holds key to reintroduction of Bahati Bill. But who is this Maria Kiwanuka

Who is Maria Kiwanuka ( pictured above)?
Business
Written by Moses Talemwa
Sunday, 29 May 2011 17:07

New Finance Minister, Maria Kiwanuka

In her, the ministry of Finance will get an expert with lots of hands on experience in economics, business, banking and finance

It is in Radio One’s newsroom that one can truly understand the character of Maria Kiwanuka. As aggressively as one can imagine, she would summon editors to her office, where she would give them a piece of her mind.



Her criticism, just like her praise, is delivered in the most bold way possible. At that station, where she is still a General Manager, Maria Kiwanuka has a strong spite for incompetence and a revered drive for perfectionism. But even for her unwavering attempt to meet high standards, it would not be far-fetched to argue that Maria Kiwanuka’s nomination as the next Minister of Finance could have caught her, and many more, by surprise.

Only less than two months ago, President Yoweri Museveni, while meeting religious leaders at Hotel Africana, singled out Maria Kiwanuka’s Akaboozi ku Bbiiri as one of those stations that are against his NRM party.

In fact, Akaboozi ku Bbiiri was one of the four radio stations that government closed down on grounds that it was inciting violence during the infamous Buganda riots of September 2009. Government also issued an indefinite ban on the station’s lead talk-show host Kalundi Serumaga. The station was later reopened in about four weeks.

So, just who is Maria Kiwanuka?

In July 1996, Uganda’s FM airwaves were teeming with three radio stations; Radio Sanyu, Capital FM and CBS FM, and for a while it seemed no one wanted to challenge their dominance. Besides the managers behind the radio stations were all men; Sanyu FM had the Katto family, Capital FM had Patrick Quarcoo, while CBS FM was a Buganda Kingdom station driven by the likes of Kaaya Kavuma and Ssebaana Kizito.

Then Kiwanuka, fresh from her contract with the World Bank in Washington arrived in town with plans to start a radio station. For three months, she scouted for opportunities in the city centre on foot trying to find a niche in the market. She came across three points that worked in her favour.

First, more than 70% of the cars on the Uganda market were Japanese made, which means that their FM radios stopped at 90FM. Two, listeners loved to listen to music from the 70s and 80s because it brought back wonderful memories of times past; and thirdly, listeners loved a radio they could talk back to.

With those facts in the bag, she set about securing a licence and getting modern equipment in place. And once her husband Mohan Kiwanuka acquired the station’s premises at plot 32 Kampala Road, Maria was ready to roll. And she was relentless in her pursuit of quality.

The technicians that set up the machines were flown in from the United States. Another South African couple came in to do the wood paneling at the offices. A South African broadcaster, Tony Sanderson, came in to train the presenters, who were to be headed by a Scottish FM presenter, Neil Mcleod.

The staff, many of whom were drawn from other radio stations, went through three months of off-air training before the station finally opened its doors to the public on September 11, 1997. And there was something different about Radio One. For instance, Radio One was the first station to play its music off computer, unlike the rest of the market that played it off CDs.

That attention to detail has made Radio One and later Akaboozi ku Bbiri (Radio Two) one of the main players in a now crowded market. Many staff, past and present, have nothing but praise for her work ethic.

“She is extremely professional and does not entertain any nonsense. She is only interested in how to help you succeed,” says Mayambala Ssekasi, a former Marketing Executive at the station.

Her success in the radio market draws a lot from her family’s support as well as her extraordinary abilities. The mother of two teenage boys is a stickler for high standards and works as hard as it takes to get a job done; taking in long hours at times. She was a contemporary of Winnie Byanyima at Mt St. Mary’s College Namagunga before they both joined Makerere University in 1975.

While Byanyima went to the faculty of Engineering, Kiwanuka was in the faculty of Commerce where she excelled before the two headed to University of Manchester; Byanyima to specialize in Aeronautical Engineering and Kiwanuka for an MBA, majoring in Finance.

After Manchester it was off to the World Bank, where her paths crossed with the future Nnabagereka, the Queen of Buganda. Sylvia Nagginda worked for a public relations firm in Washington that did work for the World Bank. Their friendship has grown by leaps and goes beyond official and cultural titles. It is thought that there is little that the two do not share.

Until her nomination for minister, Kiwanuka was a board member at the Uganda Development Bank; a non-executive director at Stanbic Bank; a member of the Presidential Economic Commission and the Presidential Investors Roundtable. In her, the ministry of Finance will get an expert with lots of hands on experience in economics, business, banking and finance.

mtalemwa@observer.ug