PSI Uganda’s head of finance and support services Christine Nakayenga began her tenure by taking on a task most finance leaders would outsource. That same initiative now defines her approach to leadership at the non-profit, which she is steering toward long-term sustainability.
Christine Nakayenga had barely settled into her role at Population Services International (PSI) Uganda when she made a bold suggestion. Instead of hiring a consultant to apply for the non-profit’s tax exemption, she volunteered to do it herself. It was a task most organisations preferred to outsource, but she had seen the process up close years earlier while helping her father - an accountant - prepare tax returns during school holidays. She filed the application, and it was approved without a hitch.
"There are so many things he taught me that I eventually applied when I got into the workplace, especially around tax because he exposed me to the Uganda Revenue Authority. So, when I got to the workplace, it was easy for me to integrate what I had learned from him. It was easy for me to file a pay-as-you-earn return or withholding tax return," she says.
At PSI Uganda, Christine oversees finance, IT, procurement, fleet, and warehousing. The organisation delivers affordable, high-impact health products and services, working through both public and private sectors to improve lives across Uganda. What excites her most about her work is the potential for systems to improve efficiency across different business functions.
"I am not an expert in IT, but I have always been curious about it. I love the fact that IT professionals create systems that can improve efficiency, particularly for the other functions and that has been what has driven me in this role. My goal is to foster strong collaboration between the IT team and my finance and procurement teams to create synergies that make work easier for them," she says.
Christine’s natural curiosity gave her an edge when she was a financial analyst, a role in which she was tasked with improving decision-making across departments. She designed a monthly financial bulletin that tracked program costs, budget projections, and the broader funding landscape with the goal of translating numbers into clear strategic insights.
"This document provided strategic financial guidance to management. There were different analyses including our funding landscape, what annual budget we have and what the future looks like. This information gave management what to think about," she says.
Planning for the future
The bulletin helped PSI Uganda connect budget data with long-term planning., showing what the organisation had and what it stood to lose, all within set timelines.
"If someone presents to you that the platform annual budget is two million but is projected to decrease significantly in the future, then as management, it's a trigger. You're going to think, ‘Okay so we need to find ways of increasing this.’ It also gave management the insights on things like salary analysis and what decisions to make. Do we need to restructure or things like that?" she says.
Her analytical instincts proved essential during the Covid-19 pandemic. With teams adjusting to remote work and donor expectations shifting, Christine led a pivot to digital tools in her department and budget realignments that kept field work at franchise clinics running during the pandemic.
"At that point, we had to think about how to deliver in this new environment. No printing. So that's when we thought about doing the work online and then maybe creating Adobe signatures. But it was difficult. That sort of mindset change was difficult," she says.
She also drafted a PPE budget and persuaded donors to support it. Her financial decisions, made under immense pressure, helped PSI continue its work without compromising compliance.
"It meant that we needed to align the funds that we had to be able to support the franchise clinics. I took a bold step. I worked out a budget that was used for discussion with the donors, enabling us to realign our budgets accordingly," she says.
A resilient organisation
But the pressure of her role did not end there. The recent USAID stop-work order cut a substantial portion of PSI Uganda’s funding. For Christine, the renewed urgency to maintain operations meant reviewing costs, accelerating funding, and finding a way to retain staff.
"It has been a tough situation. It has taken a lot of grace and looking at cost cutting measures and also aggressively looking for areas of fundraising in order to meet that gap," she says.
As part of her plan to steer the organisation toward sustainability, she helped establish a revenue-generating sister company, VIYA, and built its financial systems from the ground up. But in her view, the future lies in both earned income and government partnerships. As donors call for localisation, she aligns PSI’s work with national priorities.
"We do a lot of technical assistance to the government. But also on the financial side, we create reserves and work closely with the enterprise company to grow the portfolio and revenue that is coming from those products so that they can sustain the NGO in the future," she says.
Leading with empathy
She applies the same level of care to her team. At the start of each year, she sets key performance indicators and holds weekly check-in with her managers. She also supports her team members’ professional development with structured funding.
"I find out what challenges they are facing and how they can be supported. I make it an important point to ensure that my team has a budget for things like CPDs," she says.
Her leadership is grounded in her upbringing. Watching her diabetic father navigate chronic illness while supporting the family gave her both resilience and perspective.
"My dad has been diabetic for the last 27 years. Amidst all those challenges, he has done his best to ensure that we all go through the best schools. So now I make sure that I take care of myself and prioritise work life balance, so that I can thrive in all the areas of my life," she says.
To maintain that balance, Christine recharges through Ugandan dance workouts called sukuma. She also reflects through prayer and meditation, remaining deliberate about growth and deeply aware of what it takes to build something that lasts.
"I listen to inspirational videos that provide critical lessons about life. I always want to reflect on things, maybe an achievement, and do an after-action review of what I could have done better, even on the problems I have or failures I have experienced,” she explains.
