Stanbic Business Forum told Uganda’s Schools Need to Outlive Their Founders

October 8, 2026 in Business, Companies, Finance by Editor

From left to right Stanbic’s Executive Head of Business and Commercial Banking, Tunde Thorpe, Sam Kuloba, Stanbic’s Melisa Nyakwera, and Hassan Nkuutu, during the Business Forum in Mbale on Tuesday

Uganda’s schools need stronger financial systems, professional management and succession planning if they are to thrive beyond their founders and head teachers.

 

Uganda’s education sector needs to shift its focus from building schools around individual proprietors and head teachers to creating institutions capable of surviving changes in leadership, finances and operating conditions.

That was the central message from Sam Kuloba, a retired Commissioner for Secondary Schools in the Ministry of Education and Sports, who told education stakeholders in Mbale that the real measure of a school’s success is whether it can continue to perform after its founder or long-serving head teacher leaves.

“Establishing a school requires major investment, but the continuing financial challenges begin after opening it,” Kuloba said.

He was speaking at a Stanbic Business Forum held at Mount Elgon Hotel in Mbale on Tuesday under the theme, “The extra mile: Building schools for a sustainable future.” The forum brought together education stakeholders from eastern Uganda to discuss how schools can become financially and institutionally sustainable.

Kuloba said school proprietors should look beyond constructing classrooms and improving examination results and instead build systems that allow institutions to withstand financial pressures, leadership transitions and changing operational demands.

This, he said, starts with professional financial management, including realistic budgeting, proper accounting, transparent reporting and disciplined expenditure.

Schools should also diversify legitimate sources of income, develop three- to five-year strategic plans and concentrate resources on completing priority projects rather than spreading limited funds across multiple unfinished developments.

Partnerships with financial institutions can also help schools finance development without undermining their long-term financial stability, he said.

The emphasis on institutional resilience comes at a time when many schools remain closely associated with their founders, with key financial, administrative and academic decisions often concentrated around a small number of individuals.

Kuloba argued that this model creates a vulnerability because an institution whose systems depend heavily on one person can struggle when that person retires, dies, withdraws from management or simply loses the capacity to run the school.

“Invest in the teacher. When you invest in the teacher, you improve learning outcomes. That is sustainability. You are building for the future, not just for today,” he said.

He called for professional management, accountability, succession planning and teamwork, arguing that schools should not be built around the personalities or individual capabilities of their founders and head teachers.

“The real measure of leadership is not whether the institution depends on you. It is whether the institution can continue to perform, grow and deliver quality education even when you are no longer there,” Kuloba said.

He also urged proprietors to use technology responsibly, strengthen partnerships with government and the private sector and invest in infrastructure appropriate to the needs of their institutions.

For Stanbic Bank, the discussion reflects a broader economic role for schools beyond their immediate education function.

Tunde Thorpe, Stanbic’s Executive Head of Business and Commercial Banking, said schools are part of the country’s economic infrastructure because they develop the human capital needed to support future growth.

“Over the years, we have helped individuals, schools, entrepreneurs and institutions move from ambition to action by financing growth, enabling payments, building capability and connecting businesses to opportunity. Over UGX5 trillion of Stanbic money is invested in different sectors of the economy,” he said.

But Thorpe said the impact of financial institutions should not be judged only by the size of their balance sheets.

“It is also seen in the school that expands responsibly, the teacher who is better supported, the young person who gains relevant skills, the woman who builds a sustainable enterprise, and the farmer who can produce, add value and reach a dependable market,” he said.

Thorpe linked the sustainability of education institutions to Uganda’s longer-term economic ambitions, noting that the country wants to expand its economy from about USD50 billion to USD500 billion by 2040 through sectors including agro-industrialisation, tourism, minerals and science, technology and innovation.

Human capital, he said, cannot be treated as an afterthought to that ambition. “It is one of its foundations,” he said.

The institutional challenge also extends beyond school proprietors. Hassan Nkuutu, Senior Education Inspector in Mbale, called for continuous professional development, refresher courses and training for inspectors so that the officials responsible for monitoring schools can keep pace with changes in the education system.

“If the education system is changing, those responsible for monitoring it must also continuously develop their skills,” Nkuutu said.

He also called for greater attention to early childhood education and foundational learning, areas that determine how effectively children progress through the rest of the education system.

Melisa Nyakwera, Stanbic’s Head of Commercial Banking, said the bank wants to support school proprietors with more than financing for physical infrastructure.

She said financial management remained a challenge for some school proprietors and that developing a school should be understood as a long-term institutional undertaking rather than simply a construction project.

Theat distinction is important because a school can have modern classrooms, laboratories and other physical assets and still remain financially fragile or excessively dependent on one individual.

Therefore, sustainability for Uganda’s education sector, may ultimately depend less on how quickly schools expand and more on whether they develop the financial controls, professional management, capable teachers and succession structures needed to keep functioning when circumstances change.

The strongest schools will not necessarily be those that bear the names of their founders most prominently, but those whose systems are strong enough to make the founder eventually less indispensable. That is the real test of whether a school has been built for today—or built to last.