After a year of IPOs and major financial transformations, Cold Solutions Kenya CFO Jackline Aluda, Kioo Tanzania financial controller Dipen Patel and MTN Uganda CFO Andrew Bugembe talk about how they are spending the festive season and what they look forward to in 2026.
MTN Uganda CFO Andrew Bugembe considers rest essential. After leading MTN Uganda through restructuring a UGX 370 billion facility and rotating the entire finance team, Andrew had earned this moment of pause. His 2026 goal is ambitious. He plans to transform the finance function from reporting on performance to actively influencing it.
“Recharging is not merely a luxury; it is essential for maintaining effective leadership over the long term. Especially following a challenging year, it is important to prioritise time with family, catch up on reading, and allow the mind to reset,” he says.
During the festive season, Andrew is hitting the golf course, watching football matches and sharing good meals with loved ones. He also carved out time for meditation and self-reflection.
The IPO Andrew led was just one part of a broader mandate to modernise the finance function and position it as a strategic driver of business decisions. In 2026, his goal is transforming the finance function from reporting on performance to actively influencing it. He wants finance integrated earlier into strategic decisions, with his team building capabilities to become true business partners.
“We'll know we've truly advanced if, by the end of 2026, finance regularly helps shape better decisions rather than just explaining them after they've been made. For the team, the focus is on building capabilities: developing finance professionals who are skilled with data, adaptable in uncertain situations, and respected as business partners,” he explains.
Delayed gratification
Unlike his fellow award winners, Kioo financial controller Dipen Patel, Tanzania's CFO of the Year, remains firmly fixed on one thing: Project K3. It's a fitting response from someone whose toughest decision during the $60 million IFC-Standard Bank financing deal was choosing patience over speed. At several points during the process, faster options were available with smaller facilities or unfavorable terms. But Dipen held the line, negotiating for a structure that protected cash flow and ensured sustainability.
“No major holiday plans for now. Our focus remains fully on completing the project and the successful addition of a third furnace at Kioo. Once we finish this key milestone, I'm hoping to finally unwind a bit and, if time allows, plan a long-awaited trip to Japan,” he reveals.
The third furnace commissioning is a major milestone for Kioo and Tanzania's manufacturing sector as a whole. For Dipen, seeing Project K3 through feels like the natural conclusion to an extraordinary year. The project will boost Kioo's competitiveness and capacity, cementing its position as a leader in the glass manufacturing industry.
“2026 is a year where the groundwork we've laid will start translating into real transformation. Professionally, I'm excited about the opportunity to continue strengthening Kioo's financial systems, deepen our sustainability efforts, and support the next phase of growth,” he says.
Family and reflection
Jackline Aluda, who took home the Finance &ESG award, is planning her festive season around her close family and her inner circle of friends. Her eight-year-old son prayed every single day for her to win the CFO award from the moment she told him about her nomination. At the gala night, her boys kept checking the internet to confirm she had won. The recognition was particularly meaningful because it validated both her professional achievements and the values she had consistently upheld throughout her career.
"I usually take time to appreciate my family members and take time to look at the year in hindsight and learn and unlearn from my mistakes and success stories. I also reflect on plans for the coming year and strategise on how to execute. I'm also taking a very short course that is non financial. I should be completing a certificate course in counselling as a way of unwinding,” she explains.
The counselling course is a fitting choice for Jackline, who describes her work on a 1.4-Megawatt solar installation as the culmination of authentic leadership, stakeholder management and technical execution. The solar project, which earned Cold Solutions Africa's first cold storage LEED gold certification and delivered substantial power savings, required transparent communication and data-driven decision-making.
"This recognition carries a very deep professional weight at this time in my career that is aligned to what is close to my heart and my very personal convictions. My role influences the decisions that are made by stakeholders, which ultimately affects families and the ecosystem at large. Everyday I wake up and go to work, it is never about the paycheck at the end of the month but about my role and the story that my numbers tell that will leave a definite mark in any space I find myself,” she says.
