By Mulengera Reporters
At just 46 years, Dr. Ruth Biyinzika has accomplished and achieved what many of her peers and majority women way older, can only dream and fantasize about. She has a decent home, a powerful job, a PhD, Master and Bachelors degrees. Her journey and understanding of the vitality of hard work, savings and financial independence while wishing others well began way back in 1999 when (aged 19 years) she was in her S6 vacation.
As a teenager, she learnt of Kawempe Financial Services Association (KFSA which was part of the FSA International Uganda). FSA International Uganda brought together hundreds of thousands of women under KFSA-like associations scattered across Uganda, to teach and show them why hard work and financial independence was important for women.
Biyinzika, whose father was a devout believer in women’s financial independence as opposed to being dependent on men, desired to enrol and become a member of the Kawempe Financial Savings Association (KFSA which she wanted to be occupied with throughout her S6 vacation). But enrolment wasn’t for free; Shs10,000 was required for membership fees. She told her dad about it and asked that he pays for her the Shs10,000. Much as he was a proud dad who greatly loved his daughter, the father refused to pay the whole of it.
He gave her only Shs5,000 demanding that she raises the balance. This weas his way of instilling hard work and financial discipline in his young daughter. Ruth Biyinzika (who grew up seeing and admiring Dr. Maggie Kigozi who was the CEO for Uganda Investment Authority) had her Shs4,500 which she had fundraised to participate in the beach bash her fellow S6 vacists and classmates were organizing in Entebbe, to celebrate completion of UACE UNEB exams.
She craved both the beach bash and also enrolment into the KFSA. The money she had wasn’t enough for both. The future Makerere University BCOM graduate sacrificed the beach bash and prioritized enrolling into KFSA.
Unknown to her, this was the beginning of her journey to becoming one of Uganda’s most impactful mentors of fellow women on financial inclusion, mentorship, financial independence, group savings and skills development. Shortly after enrolling, the KFSA AGM was convened and several leadership slots were opened up to be competed for.
Young as she was, Biyinzika (then just 19) offered herself for the position of chairperson but she predictably lost to more senior members. She lost the elections but not the great ideas she had embedded in her manifesto on how to strengthen and better the association. Subsequently, there was need to elect three members to comprise the association’s audit committee and Ruth Biyinzika, who was still in S6 vacation, once again offered herself.
She got the role of chairperson; a platform she used to demonstrate her capabilities. Enthused association members added onto her the role of heading the mobilization committee. This required her to spread the word while mobilizing and luring other women into KFSA membership.
She found herself involved more deeply when the KFSA overall chairperson eventually abdicated and the role was bestowed upon her. This meant more responsibility including representing the KFSA at events that used to be organized by the FSA International Ugandan office. Many of these would be funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through partners like UK Aid, Plan International, the EU etc. The resultant exposure saw Biyinzika travel near and far within Uganda, and later on abroad on women financial inclusion, skilling and financial independence-related errands.
Using her experience, exposure and growing profile, Ruth Biyinzika personally spearheaded the founding and establishment of Bwaise Financial Savings Services Association and that of nearby Mpererwe. Being admitted for BCOM at Makerere in the later part of 2000 meant limited time being available for her to continue being engaged in FSA International Uganda-related work.
Gratefully, an arrangement was made by her supervisors to enable her balance that with schooling at Makerere. In 2002, while a student at Makerere, she was elevated to the role of operations manager for FSA International Uganda. Besides making money and getting exposed to early learning/mentorship opportunities in areas like leadership, financial management, staff training & community mobilization, this gig exposed Ruth Biyinzika to earning decent monthly income to the extent that she was able to become a home owner in Kampala when still a student at Makerere.
She was able to begin impacting lives of fellow women that early and this has remained her passion up to this day. As part of her career growth, she has (over the last more than 25 years) done women financial independence, skilling and financial inclusion-related work under Private Sector Foundation Uganda, the AfDB, EU and World Bank whose multi-billion GROW project (dedicated to capacitating women entrepreneurs) she currently heads as National Coordinator up to this day.
Besides empowering and inspiring fellow women, Ruth Biyinzika has also been able to build a professional network that spans continents. She easily ranks among Uganda’s most educated and most travelled career women at such a young age.
The testimonies of those she has impacted (as was well captured in the Weekend Vision’s latest reporting-namely Rashidah Namaganda, Immaculate Nduhukire, Peninah Namubiru, Christine Arituha & Oliver Mukandooli) indicate that Dr. Biyinzika is one woman corporate leader who believes other women don’t have to first fail for one of them to succeed. She believes in collective success whereby those who make it to the top have a duty to deliberately inspire and uplift several others.
Because she is among those who quickly adopted and leveraged social media real early, Dr. Biyinzika has been able to inspire and motivate many fellow young women without ever meeting them physically. Her social media videos, especially on Tik Tok, have made her one of the easily recognizable corporate leaders among Uganda’s self-employed women; including both the low- and high-profile ones.
Many hitherto downtrodden women have succeeded in business and gone back for further studies (to the level of Masters and PhDs) simply because they listened to Dr. Biyinzika talk at a speaking engagement or watched her Tik Tok video. Many, who at some point considered committing suicide because of frustration and repeated failure, collected themselves and matched on to achieved greater business success after being impacted by her words of encouragement and exemplary lifestyle.
Biyinzika endeavours to balance work and healthy living e.g. routine workouts, dancing-and walks the talk by practicing these herself; if her daily Tik Tok videos are anything to go by. She calls on fellow women to balance hard work, emotional health, physical exercise, forgiveness, service to community, compassion and personal happiness because life is short.
She is an achiever who lives in her own palatial residence in one of Kampala’s upscale neighbourhoods. She travels to wherever she chooses, cruises in nice cars and takes good care of herself, her mum and children, which inspires many fellow young mothers. Indeed, as a natural achiever, Biyinzika became a home owner at just 22 years while still studying BCOM at Makerere University in the year 2002. This was all courtesy of the huge dimes she began making and earning while working at FSA International Uganda (in her early 20s) where she demonstrated extreme passion to empower and transform fellow women while emancipating them out of poverty and deprivation.
