On Thursday October 27, I&M Bank Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Andrew Ssekamwa, was named the Young CFO of the year at the sixth Edition of the annual Chief Finance Officer (CFO) awards that took place at Kampala Serena Hotel.
The awards organized by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Uganda and Deloitte Uganda, aim at highlighting and celebrating some of the biggest industry shapers in the finance world who have done exceedingly well to shape a profitable and sustainable future for their organizations/companies.
Held under the theme; Environmental, Social Corporate Governance ESG Reporting, Societal Impact and Environmental Transformation, the night was curated to specifically discuss sustainability and celebrate the CFOs behind it.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Norbert Kagoro, one of the organizers from Deloitte Uganda, explained that the choice of this year’s awards theme was based on the fact that sustainability cannot be fully achieved without the role CFOs play in driving strategy.
“Tonight is yet another milestone, as Deloitte comes together with ACCA to recognize the role that CFOs play in their different organizations. In the past, CFOs were looked at as number crunchers, but moving forward, CFOs are playing a major role in driving strategy and catalyzing organizations to enable them succeed.
This year’s theme is looking at sustainability, and you cannot talk about sustainability without considering the role the CFO plays at that particular level; so it is not about just us crunching numbers, and coming up with reports, we need to keenly look at the things that we are doing to leave the planet better than how we found it,” said Kagoro.
The night was a double win for the I&M Bank Uganda’s CFO- Andrew Ssekamwa, who scooped the Strategy Execution Award, for providing and executing innovation solutions for the Finance reporting processes, that he achieved through identifying and enhancing systematic capabilities that scaled down reporting timelines.
Ssekamwa also took home the award for the Young CFO of the year. He won this particular one, for exhibiting solutions, driven leadership of the finance function, leveraging existing technology to solve challenges hence improving performance.
Ssekamwa applauded the organizers for celebrating the efforts and successes of the CFOs.
He also thanked his team at I&M Bank Uganda, for the support and creating an enabling environment for all staff to perform to the best of their abilities.
“I am glad to be a part of an event that not only celebrates our efforts, but also awards the successes and the hard work we put in as CFO’s; this is truly an honor. In a special way, I want to thank my team at I&M Bank, thank you for the unwavering support and the atmosphere that enables staff to perform to the best of their abilities,” Ssekamwa said.
The annual CFO Awards seek to illuminate the essential role that the finance function plays in driving integrated thinking in decision making and in building sustainable business models.