Meet Nicholas, AIA's Financial Guru with a Passion for Helping People
My name is Nicholas Ssenabulya, the Finance and Administration Manager at Action in Africa (AIA). Financial management and proper financial systems are critical ingredients for any organisation. Action in Africa professionalising and having experts in the finance field is a huge sign that the organisation is growing and building better systems. In my role with Action in Africa, I am committed to developing stronger financial systems and processes, and I am ready for any challenge. But I also believe that any organisation I work for must contribute to my vision of uplifting communities and impacting lives; that is why Action in Africa resonates so well with me because it shares the same vision.
In my role as a finance manager, one of the first things I have done is to strengthen the scholarship school fees (tuition) payment system. Currently, the process is initiated by the relevant department. In this case, the Scholarship department sends me the payment schedules for me to initiate payments through our banks to those of the scholarship schools. One of the new improvements is that now we make all payments online, with transactions running from our account to those of the schools. After the payments are made, I share the confirmation documents with the scholarship officers who share them with the schools. With such a system, all our scholarship students get to access their schools and Universities promptly and without any disturbances.
Despite my love for systems and processes, my approach to finance is that I believe in the finance professionals being involved in the actual work that the organisation is doing. This positively affects how I think about and do my work. During my time at AIA, I have tried to understand the various programs of AIA. I think it is very important that every professional is reminded that there is a human being that is affected by the work that they do, and they should work to ensure that that human being is served to the best possible standard.
At AIA we run various programs to create a holistic impact for the students, women and children that are part of the programs. The nutrition program is awesome because the nutritious porridge given to young children in schools within our community is important for their development. After-school programs and women-to-women programs are very impressive and impactful, especially in skilling the community members. These programs present life-changing opportunities for the people in Nakuwadde.
But my heart is really in the special needs program, that is because it avails children of opportunities they would not have otherwise had. I think my heart is on the special needs children simply because it is harder for them to access education which is vital for their very survival. I followed up with some of them and I have found out that the progress they have made in school has been incredible especially since most of them had not been able to go to school until AIA came in to assist them. It gives me fulfilment to know that some people are having a better life, in part, because of the work that I do. I am very grateful that working in a place like this gives me such an opportunity.
