Become visionary leaders and embrace innovation, youths told

As the effects of climate change continue to cause suffering in different parts of the world, youth in Uganda have been urged to embrace innovation and biodiversity regeneration.

Businessman and environmental activist, Mr Leonard Mutesasira, highlighted the importance of environmental protection arguing that it is key for each individual to take up protection of the environment as a personal responsibility given that 60 percent of Uganda’s forest cover has been lost over the last 30 years leading to catastrophic climate change.

Therefore, it’s of utmost importance that biodiversity regeneration is embraced fully, he said.

“As young people today, you live in an exciting time. You must become visionary leaders and embrace innovation in every sphere of life, whether you’re starting a business or engaging in environmental protection,” argues Mr Mutesasira, who doubles as director at the Great Outdoors, a forest resort and nature hub and Regenerate Africa Ltd, an NGO that is fostering environment conservation and regeneration in Uganda.

According to him, the life of an entrepreneur is never easy; it’s a constant battle that one must be willing to take on and win pointing out that one of the biggest challenges that most businesses is cash flow and that in order to access cash flow, one must realize that it is a long term investment in building trust.

“Many people do not get money (funding) from banks but from sources that trust them. Two things you need to show in order be trusted; show that you’re competent and you’re trustworthy with a good work ethic and your business will stay afloat,”  says the executive director of Rapid Advisory Services Ltd, a boutique financing firm.
According to him, true leadership is servant leadership and that a good leader is not someone who loads it over others but one that serves the people he/she is leading.

The summer leadership Camp is scholarship program born out of a partnership between Makerere University and The MasterCard Foundation (MCF) to enable 1,000 academically bright but economically disadvantaged youth from Africa to study at Makerere University from 2014 to 2024.

The programme provides comprehensive support to Scholars that includes leadership, development among others.