The supply of honest individuals in Uganda is currently low- Solberg

On January 23, you were interviewed on NTV and said “the supply of honest individuals in Uganda is currently low.” What led you to this conclusion? Can you cite specific examples?

I have never heard anyone, over the almost 40 years I have been here, disagree with me about dishonesty being rampant in Uganda. I have therefore attached my book, “Put Integrity First”, where you can find many written examples. 

If someone on social media calls me a racist because they don’t like my view on this, it makes it all ridiculous — because first and foremost, half my family is Ugandan, and I have dedicated my whole life to help Africans fight poverty by working with poor farmers (15,000 in Uganda and 5,000 in Kenya). It is easy to use the “racist card” when you don’t know what you are talking about. 

I have had hundreds of employees in several of my companies over the years, and only a handful of these people will be classified as honest. My attached book gives many examples to pick (page 43).

In all countries around the world, there are dishonest people. It is laws, for the most part, that force people to be honest. What makes dishonesty in Uganda a serious problem, as your comments seem to suggest?

You are absolutely right about the laws. Unfortunately, because of corruption on every level, the laws in Uganda are not enforced and respected. As an example, I have two court cases going, which have taken me over 15 years, due to corrupt lawyers/judges and the fact that I did not want to pay bribes.

Many foreigners who are non-black and are doing business in Uganda often use diplomatic language and rarely criticise Ugandans or say things they think will not go down well with them. Why were you brutally frank?

[Rino Solberg] Because I do not need to be diplomatic, and I wrote my book about these problems already in 2007.

Are there Ugandans who have contacted you since you made those comments to say they agree with you wholeheartedly?

[Rino Solberg] Yes, I have many who have called me and told me they liked it.  

Having done business in Uganda for many years, you interact with all sorts of people: businessmen/women, politicians, maybe even religious leaders, ordinary people, etc. Which section of the population tends to have serious honesty/integrity issues?

All of the above.

Would you be more comfortable dealing with religious leaders, for example, than with politicians—or more comfortable dealing with politicians than business people?

I cannot distinguish between groups of people as dishonesty is everywhere.

Your profile on LinkedIn says you have helped 103 companies in Uganda and Kenya to implement the ISO 9000 and ISO 14001 respectively. How do you compare the level of honesty/integrity among employees of Ugandan companies with employees of Kenyan companies?

Based on my work with ISO standards in all these companies, I would not be able to split honesty/integrity level into countries. It is almost the same level in Uganda and Kenya, in general terms. 

In low-income countries like Uganda, people are sometimes dishonest because they need to survive — to find something to eat, to get money to treat a patient or to send children to school. Do you really think desperately poor people can be as honest as people in rich countries?

I can fully understand/accept dishonesty by need, because of poverty. However, dishonesty by choice (greed) is the real problem in Uganda.

Norway is one of the Scandinavian countries that do really well on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Corruption in Norway is almost non-existent, yet it is a country with few religious people. What lessons can Ugandans learn from Norway about honesty/integrity?

Integrity is a personal attitude/education and does not depend on countries, but trust in the government to enforce laws, honest police and zero tolerance to corruption helps.

Do you think religion fosters morality?
It should — but unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere.

You are chairman of Better Globe Group, which brings together Better Globe Forestry Ltd – Kenya, Better Globe Forestry Ltd – Uganda, Better Globe Media Inc – USA, etc. How many people do you employ, and as head of the Group, what systems have you put in place to ensure you hire people of high integrity?

We have approximately 250 people employed (BG Forestry/Child Africa) and 500 people during high seasons. Unfortunately, there is no sure way to ensure that we get people with high integrity. 

However, we have a good HR department and clear procedures where people have to qualify. Regardless, some people will have integrity and some won’t. Over time we always find out.

Better Globe Group’s mission in Africa is to eradicate poverty through afforestation to protect the environment, microfinance for agriculture and children education. Poverty remains one of the continent’s major problems and is worsened by corruption, an integrity issue. Have honesty/integrity issues hampered your mission at all?

Absolutely! We meet corrupt people everywhere, and since we do not pay bribes, everything takes much longer and is often very frustrating.

What do you consider your biggest accomplishments in Uganda with respect to poverty eradication and what remains to be done?

We have planted approximately 2 million mahogany trees with 15,000 farmers in Uganda, which is just the beginning. We believe we can plant 1 billion trees working with millions of farmers in the years to come. Poverty eradication is, therefore, happening to one family at a time. 

Child Africa has educated more than 20,000 children to understand the principles of “honesty and integrity” through our BINGWA programme: https://www.childafricasuccess.com/

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Rino Solberg, chairman for the Better Globe Group of companies. Rino founded the “Solberg Children’s Help Organization” together with his wife in 1991. This organization later became Child Africa International, which is a prominent non-profit organization in Uganda.  

His business experience varies much and includes sales and marketing, import/export and manufacturing.

As a young man he invented and got patents in 12 countries on a grinding machine for gate and globe valves (UNISLIP) and was building a manufacturing company for this product, with daughter companies in USA, Japan and Germany, and with agents in 25 countries.

Today, approximately 70% of all Nuclear Power Stations all over the world have his machines. He sold that company after running it successfully for 13 years, and started a training and publishing company.