Charles Mbire: Mentoring of Young Businesspeople in Uganda and Vision for the Future

Charles Mbire, Chairman of MTN Uganda, talks about his ambition to start mentoring young businesspeople and shares his vision for the future of Uganda.

“I personally want to start mentoring young businesspeople. I want them to understand that you can do business transparently and still succeed. Shortcuts are very expensive. Warren Buffet once said that he is not rich enough to buy cheap. I want to also educate the youth coming in after us that spiritual wealth is more important than material wealth. I want to pass that philosophy to the next generation. We are empowering and improving humanity. We are empowering and improving security. From our system, we are fighting crime, improving health, bettering education. From our system, we have social inclusion in banking. In farming, we let the farmer know the true value of his crops, the right exchange rate for his products. Do not look at only the revenue side. Look at the multiplier effect of our actions on humanity”, says Charles Mbire.

“From our actions and businesses, showing examples of the ability to succeed, we help to generate a new crop of business leaders. Those, in turn, will help improve society, get rid of corruption and political patronage, get rid of layers created to disable business performance. All those artificial layers that are created by corruption and patronage, the local citizen is the one who pays for them in the end and they are not happy. You cannot live in a country with unhappy people. You are wasting your time. However successful you are, if the people are unhealthy, you will become unhealthy. If they are sad, you will become sad. We have to improve their well being by getting rid of those invisible layers that have put a tax burden on the local people. We do that by setting an example and refusing to be part of that clique that creates artificial layers that exploit people”, he adds.

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