OF MICHAEL JORDAN AND THE CREATION OF VALUE

When I was a kid Michael Jordan was god. This especially since the only time I saw him was in the few highlight reels on TV, where he twisted himself this way and that way on his way to the basket. He played for the Chicago Bulls and won six NBA titles with them.

I watched the Bulls a few years ago, live at their home court, the United Center, and it was a yawner. Probably because I had to watch the whole match and not the highlights only, but obviously because the-long-retired Jordan was not playing.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Jordan had off loaded the Charlotte Bobcats, a team he took control of thirteen years ago, for $3b (sh11.1trillion). That is just a number until you place it the context of what he reportedly paid for it, $275m in 2010. What made the deal even more spectacular is that he is said to have only put up $25m of his own cash with the rest being him taking over the team’s existing debt.

And this for a team that never won a championship.

Observers say a lot of the value came from the increasing revenues from broadcast rights that have inflated team valuations around the major sports leagues of the world, allowing them to pay they stars millions of dollars a year.

Last week there was a report that Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford was set to put pen to paper on a new £375,000 (sh1.7b) a week contract.

But before these team owners could benefit from the largesse of the broadcast media they had to be organized.

Many of these teams started off as pet projects of one rich man or the other. It was their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to the communities in which they operated. These teams were then passed on to businessmen, when the original owners passed on or they became too expensive to sustain. Businessmen seeing the opportunity that came with earnings from the gate took them over, invested in their infrastructure and built national and international communities around them.

With more eyeballs on their teams, they could attract sponsors. This took time. In the case of the English Premier league this was the progression from the end of the second world war to the beginning of the premiership as we know it in 1992.

"With the entrance of TV the real inflation in valuations begun. And now with the internet and non-traditional players like Amazon jumping into the fray, where, we wonder, are the limits to this cash bonanza....

In Uganda of course our sports are largely amateur. The owners or patrons have failed miserably to make them money spinners, content to eat the crumbs government throws their way.

Some owners are making a real go at it – Vipers FC, KCCA and maybe Arua Hill. Rugby has some serious sponsors but the infrastructure is still wanting. Golf have managed to have corporate Uganda falling over themselves to sponsor weekend events (is it because the check signers are also golfers?). Beyond that nothing.

The individual owners trying to do the right thing are being weighed down by the mediocrity of the rest.

We have said many times in this column that money follows organization, though people think when the money comes then they will get organized. The problem with money is that it magnifies what you are, so if you are disorganised you only become more disorganized and the opposite is true.

Going by the way the trends in sports have gone in more developed economies we still have a long way to go.

We are still in the age when the sports team is just a vanity project of some rich man with some shillings to spare. We still need to get to the point when a business is formed around a sports team, with the purpose of onfield success but more importantly business success.

As the Jordan story above has shown, even if a team’s trophy case is bare but it is commercially viable there is always a chance that they will turn things around someday, because they will survive to see that day.

"The Denver Nuggets have seen little joy since they were formed in 1967, but this year won the NBA Championships for the first time. The way they were able to wait through those years is because they are commercially viable...

What is stopping us from doing that here, organizing businesses around sports? The obvious answer of course is that our business culture is still very rudimentary. We all want to own 100 percent of a small thing rather than a small piece of a big thing.

Imagine a group of people came together to build a sports team that would be successful in ten to 20 years. They would pool resources to set up and finance the team, eventually build it infrastructure. If they start from zero it could take longer.

Imagine pouring resources into an endeavour for years without the guarantee of a return. What kind of promoters would they have to be? They would be long term thinkers and it would help if they had some extra cash lying around.

The model of the big man running the team should be dumped by the way side. It has serious limitations that will mean it will not go further than being a big fish in our small pond.

 

 

USAIN BOLT AND LESSONS FROM THE BANKS

Last week it was reported that former speed demon Usain Bolt had lost much of his retirement nest egg – about $12m (Sh45b) when a company it was invested in went under. The company suffered internal fraud which accounted for among others Bolt’s money.

This is a retiree’s worst nightmare.

I don’t know the details but I can imagine how such a thing came about. The little-known company Stocks & Securities Ltd probably approached Bolt and his management team and promised returns above the industry average if he invested with them.

They probably bad-mouthed established wealth managers who were offering, say single digit returns annually as “conmen”, spending most of the money on fattening their owners at the expense of their clients. They were a company with a difference. Probably spending next to nothing on marketing with the savings being enjoyed by the clients.

"Given the short career spans of athletes, they hit their peak earning potential before they are 30, one can understand the anxiety to seek the best returns for their money. Better established firms, with time tested records but lower returns, seem boring and worse, thieves, exploiters, neo colonialists …and any number of expletives that can turn a poor black kid’s head.

We hope Bolt recovers his money from the fraudsters.  But for us mere mortals, there is a lesson for us in how we seek to grow and keep our money.

Banks are borrowing businesses. They receive money from the public and lend it back to the public with their margin added on. They rely on volume to make money because the margins are a bit thin, Very boring.

Even more boring is their investment process. They first keep cash, when that becomes surplus to requirements they invest in near cash instruments – fix money with other banks, buy treasury bills and bonds and then maybe build or buy a building. The last to show they are solid, to the gullible public who see brick and mortar as an indication of being solid.

With most transactions becoming digital a lot of those bank buildings do not pay their way, dead weight on their balance sheets. But that is a story for another day.

"The point is we need to invest like banks.

Stay in cash and move up the asset classes, cautiously and systematically. But no! What do the rest of us do? We start by investing in the mortar and brick as soon as we have some cash coming in. We climb the tree from the top...

Real estate is used as a store of wealth. The wealthy make their money in trading goods or services and then store it in real estate.

The logic is simple. Our initial investments need to be as near to cash as possible to cater for our daily needs and emergencies, once this is covered, we move on to invest in more fixed assets, which by definition are hard to dispose of quickly. They often have low cash-on-cash returns but can show dramatic appreciations over time, which value is unlocked on sale. That’s the sexy part.

The banks’ time-tested formula is important because when the savers come to withdraw their monies the bank cannot turn them back with explanations of how they are illiquid because they parked their money in real estate.

"Greenland Bank, which was shut down in 1999 learnt this lesson the hard way. They behaved like us, rushing to build themselves a fantastic headquarters, hotels and other illiquid assets. They made the cardinal sin of using short term liabilities to finance long term assets. This mismatch cost them. Of course there was the issue of being in bed with shady fellows, but again that is a story for another day.

Stanbic Bank, which is many times bigger in value now does not own its own headquarters choosing to stick to their core business as a financial mediator. The building I am sure, will come.

Many of us who are in employment can get away – for a while, with this inversion of the wealth creation process, because any bumps in the road will be papered over with our monthly pay check. But it would do us well to keep this logic in mind even if we have a regular paycheck.

As Bolt’s experience has shown going for the best return is good but steady and consistent returns are better...

Good and consistent returns add up over the long term. Higher returns suggest higher risks, which means that eventually the high risk will come through and God help you!

 

 

VIPERS SC; A CASE STUDY FOR SPORTS TEAM OWNERS

I have never watched a Vipers SC football match, ever.

A function of me not making the habit of watching live soccer matches – I have only watched one half of a live match. This was between the Uganda U-23 and Zimbabwe, maybe 20 years ago.

Vipers SC is enjoying major success. Last weekend in the southern DRC city of Lubumbashi, in the CAF Champions League, they wrestled favourites TP Mazembe to a goalless draw. In the ensuing shootout they overcome major nerves to beat TP Mazembe – who are five times Champions of Africa, in front of their home crowd. The final score, 4-2.

The victory meant that for the first time in Vipers SC history, they will play in the group stages of the tournament. While the local press were excited by the guaranteed sh2.1b they are set to earn, I marveled at the work it has taken to get that to that point.

I have had my eye on them for a while now. And not for their on-field prowess.

This is the story of Vipers SC, as I know it.

In 2001 teacher and entrepreneur Lawrence Mulindwa opened St Mary’s Boarding Secondary School - Kitende off Entebbe Road. The school first made a name for itself by churning out high scoring candidates at O- and A-level, upsetting the dominance of the traditional schools.

But it also started to dominate in soccer, emerging the best soccer secondary school in Uganda ten times and in east Africa 13 times, including 11 times in a row between 2004 and 2014...

Mulindwa did not stop there. He took over straggling Bunamwaya FC changing it to Vipers SC. This served as a useful up taker of his school’s talent. The team has won the premier league five times since 2010.

The success of his team makes for good reading on the sports pages, but the real untold story is the behind-the-scenes work needed to bring on this success.

Starting with a school to source and nurture talent was an inspired move. Owning a team to funnel that talent was the logical next step.

And in case Mulindwa had not made believers of us yet, he went and built a 25,000 capacity stadium to house Vipers SC, the biggest built in the country in almost three decades – Mandela Stadium was opened in 1997. And it is the only privately owned one that meets CAF’s standards to host its matches.

And suddenly Mulindwa, if it wasn’t clear before, was no ordinary soccer team owner.

Mulindwa’ stated ambition is to make Vipers SC the best team in Africa. If that is so the work has only just begun.

His actions suggest he understands what it takes to build a soccer team from the ground up. He has understood correctly that for success to happen the team has to be driven by an “impossible” vision, have a pipeline of talent and has to be able to sustain itself beyond his own means.

And this last part, building a self-sustaining organization to support the team, is what will give Vipers SC the best chance of attaining the dream, and ensuring that it joins the continental dynasties of the game.

There are richer teams on the continent than Vipers Sc that have not attained the heights they have. More than money will be the way the team improves its institutional capacity, its corporate governance. It’s a cliché these days but one that cannot be ignored.

At the most basic level it means the club will formalize how it earns and spends its money and how it plans for long term viability. The team will become an asset on the books like the stadium. The organization will supersede the team and must supersede its owner.

This is true because I suspect the team has gone as far as it can go on the will power of one man. But I am sure Mulindwa knows this and is working towards this end, otherwise he will not realise his dream.

As an indicator the most successful team in African football is Egyptian team Al Ahly. Al Ahly was started in 1907 and is thought to be the most valuable team on the continent, valued at $28m(Sh104b). In 2021 they had a budget of $129m(sh477b) and a transfer budget of $12.7m (sh47b).

It has a seven-man board, management and branches dotted around Egypt. It is no wonder that they are among the most successful teams in the world by trophy count –115 and have endured for so long. Long after their founders and their children were dead and buried.

Al Ahyl boosted by its tens of thousands of paying members and corporate sponsors is gone beyond being a soccer team with teams in the national basketball, handball, tennis and gymnastics leagues.

To be the best on the continent Al Ahyl are the ones to watch.

 

 

CHELSEA AT THE CROSS ROADS

Chelsea FC used to flatter to deceive until Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich came along in 2003.

Abramovich who took the London club off previous owner Ken Bates’ hands for an estimated £60m (sh300b) in 2003, was, and at the beginning of the month asking for at least £3b (sh15trillion). This represents a more than 20 percent annual capital gains return on his initial investment. Nothing to be snorted at especially in Europe.

"But don’t cry for Bates, he in fact got a better return on the £1 he paid for the team, when he took it over 1982...

Bates inherited a team that was deeply indebted, had a bad reputation for hooliganism and was floundering in the lower levels of the league.

The coincidence of sport and business is never boring.

Since he took over the club Abramovich has invested about £1.5b (sh7.5trillion), which probably explains why the club is still loss making, a lot of its revenues going to servicing Abramovich’s debt to the club.  Chelsea last year made a £153m loss off revenues of £435m.

You can rest assured that the cashflows the club was throwing off, made the Russian’s decision to sell the club a very reluctant one.

Abramovich has been singled out as a supporter of Russian President Vladmir Putin, has been blacklisted and his assets frozen in Europe and America. Punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Chelsea’s financial success under Abramovich is due to its newfound success on the field – 16 trophies in England and Europe over the last 19 years, making it next to Manchester United the most successful club in England during the period.

The interesting thing about sports franchises is that their biggest assets are the players not the physical infrastructure that the club may own.

In Chelsea’s case their squad is valued at a billion pounds compare to its stated worth of about £2.5b.

Chelsea last year earned under ten million pounds from ticket sales – because of Covid restrictions, but made £154m in commercial revenues, which often comes from the sale of shirt sales and other merchandise sales. Hobbled by a 40,000 seater stadium they would make more money on match days with a bigger stadium. Arsenal’s Emirates stadium makes more than a hundred million pounds annually from ticket sales.

"But even with Covid-19 they shrugged off the loss of match day income pulling £274m from their broadcast rights. It is no wonder they can afford to pay Romelu Lukaku £325,000 a week....

But you have to worry for the Chelsea, whose new owner may have been announced by the time you are reading this column.

No one –  unless the Saudi bid won the day, has the deep pockets of Abramovich, willing to splurge, without promise of a return for years.

Chances are to come up with three billion pound asking price, the new buyer will have to take on debt and will be under pressure to pay this off. What often happens in these cases is they will freeze the wage bill, try, sell of some players and other assets of the club to pay down a large part of the debt as quickly as possible. This could very well have affected the club’s performance on the pitch/.

Given the momentum Abramovich has created a few more years without a title but qualifying for champions’ league will not make the new owners sad. Look at Arsenal, still a very profitable company despite not having enjoyed the success they were used to previously. Or Manchester United for that matter.

From a purely business perspective a club does not have to be successful on the pitch to show a return, especially if it has a rich history behind it.

Of course you cannot stretch that point too far. The loyalty of the fans is enhanced by victory.  This loyalty provides huge brand equity the business owners can leverage to boost commercial revenues....

Interestingly for the last two decades or so, with ticket prices going through the roof – a ticket now can go far as much as £100 (sh500,000), Chelsea’s ticket buyers are not the lowlier in society. In fact, it was reported a few years ago that there is a lot of tourist traffic during match days in the English Premier League, so you are more likely to passions do not run as high in the stands as 30 years ago.

The physical infrastructure are not to be dismissed as well. When not being used on match days can be used to host events like concerts, conferences and exhibitions or as stated above be used as tourist attractions.

Given how investors from far and wide are falling over themselves to be in the bidding for Chelsea, you just know Abramovich is letting go of a good thing.

 

THE OLYMPICS NOT JUST FUN AND GAMES

This week Peruth Chemutai gifted us with a happy moment in these bleak times.

The special police constable floated -- that is what it seemed like to mere mortals,  to gold in 3000 m steeplechase. She became the first Ugandan female medalist ever at the Olympics.

We have three ranked athletes in the men’s 5000m final later today as well as Winnie Nanyondo in the 1500m finals, so there may be more joy for Uganda yet.

With Chemutai’s win Uganda jumped into 46th position in the medal standings vaulting over more established sporting nations like Egypt, Israel and India.

"A look at the  medal tables serves as useful proxy for development or lack of thereof, in countries...

The top ten nations at this writing were China, US, Japan, Australia, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, New Zealand, Italy and France. While at the bottom of the log were Syria, Malaysia. Kuwait and Ghana. Of course other nations like neighbours Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Sudan don’t even win mention in the medal table.

Going by the table its clear that sporting success comes from the respective society’s economic surpluses. That the more successful countries have enough money left over after looking after their citizens’ basic needs to funnel into sports.

The top medal winning countries made a killing in sports such as gymnastics, swimming, rowing, weight lifting and equestrian sports among others. The common denominator in all these is the huge outlays required in building the facilities and supporting the athletes to train for these events.

Forbes magazine reported a few years ago that it costs no less than $20,000 (Sh75m) annually to train an archer or table tennis player for at least eight years to make it to the Olympics and not necessarily win gold. It cost about $100,000 annually for at least eight years to train a potential tennis professional.

Beyond the financial cost it takes at least 10,000 hours of systematic practice to attain world class standards in anything, in this case sport. Broken down that amounts to three hours a day, five days a week for ten years. Our sportsmen don’t match up to world standards because they have not done their 10,000 hours, but if you think about it how much would it cost to sustain that effort?

In most of these countries most of these costs are subsidised by their respective governments as well as corporate sponsorships. The national subsidies come from taxes.

On the above evidence our athletes are winning in spite of ourselves. Going by GDP, we are a poor country and hence how much our government spends on sports is miniscule and our corporates entities even less so. 

Kenya are beginning to fall behind, as diminishing returns set in on their natural model of raising athletes. For the first time since 1980 Kenya failed to win Olympic gold in the men’s steeplechase event.

Uganda, like Kenya are relying on our naturally endowed athletes from the east to rack in the medals, but this will only last so long. 

So what is Uganda to do to keep up the momentum? 

The more successful sporting nations have strong grass root structures, which were not primarily intended to build gold medalists, but to engage youth in beneficial activities and keep them away from crime.

This infrastructure has helped identify thousands of athletes who are then funneled into more specialised training.

So for starters we need to revive the schools'national competitions. Our schools are the most extensive network already in existence that we can leverage.

At the bare minimum this will identify talent, but strategies need to be formulated, financed and implemented to take these budding talents to the next level.

But most importantly our sports organisations have to get professional management. This mode of volunteer managers who are there because they were voted into office and not necessarily on merit, is an archaic model that will take us nowhere soon.

Otherwise congratulations again to our medalists at the Olympics – Chemutai, Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kilimo. We wish the latter two and Nanyondo good luck in their races later today.

OF THE OLYMPICS AND NATIONAL BRANDING

The Olympic Games started last week in Tokyo, a year behind schedule, to a muted opening ceremony to mark the times.

In empty stadiums, athletes in swimming, gymnastics, soccer, handball, tennis and hockey among others competed hard never the less.

During the Cold War the Olympics also  had a subtheme, the competition between capitalism and socialism. The Olympics was used as a big propaganda exercise, winning the most medals was meant to show to the world which was the more successful system.

That rivalry between the west and east is much toned down now and thankfully so, as we can now focus on the athletes performance without being distracted by weighty issues of geopolitics.

But the branding value of the Olympics for competing nations has not gone away. Starting with hosts Japan. This is the second time the Japanese capital hosts the sporting bonanza, the last time being in 1964, when the games were beamed live around the world for the first time. In better times the Olympics would be a show of organisational and technological advancement for the host nation. This time it may be a show of how Japan is able to host the Olympics in the midst of a pandemic.

The US is the biggest team as usual, flying in over 600 athletes. Russian athletes are not competing under their flag following a two year ban imposed on the country for drug doping infringements. However athletes not involved in the doping scandal are competing as The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

Countries and corporate entities put a lot of weight on the performance of their athletes, as they should.

"A brand, personal, corporate or national is built on four pillars – awareness, association, experience and loyalty. They basically follow in that order....

There is no brand if no one knows about it. So winning athletes raise the awareness of nations. One of the best stories of the games so far was of freestyle swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui who upset the form book to win gold in the 400 meters freestyle, suddenly online searches for Tunisia went through the roof and Ahmed’s following on social media exploded. You will be shocked how many people out there can not point out Uganda on a map of the world, leave alone Africa.

Some may brush this aside as unimportant, but if you think about it why do you buy the groceries you do or shop from the shops you do or hire one mechanic and not the other? It starts with knowing them. As a country, company or person, being known is where the branding process begins.

Following on from being known is what the brand is associated with. Believe it or not Uganda continues to be associated with Idi Amin, it does not help that now Netflix has a docuseries with Amin squarely in the middle of it. The US, which has arguably the highest level of violent and organised crime and history of systemic racism is known more for other things – democracy and business. Their winners in the Olympics enhance the brighter side of the US. So having a dark past does not necessarily doom your brand.

Events like the Olympics create awareness and promote positive associations about countries. To experience or feel loyalty for those countries you would have to go there, the Olympics does little to help with that.

So for the US, which will be competing to top the medal table, the Olympics will cement the perception of world dominance. For China, ROC and the EU countries will look to place strongly too as a way to improve their perception as serious players on the world stage. Countries like South Africa, Tunisia, Kenya and even Uganda by winning will improve the perception that they are doing good things in their countries and deserve a second look.

The hardnosed bean counters will be rolling their eyes at the idea that national brands have even a passing effect on GDP, but they will be shocked.

It is not true that if you build it they will come.

"You can have the most green environment, the greatest number of animal species and still only manage a million tourists a year like Uganda, while the city  of Miami – a concrete jungle and the most violent city in the US attracts at last count, six million tourists a year....

As an example the most visited places are better branded – more people are aware of them and have positive associations attached to them.

For the individual athletes the Olympics is a test of their prowess and offers a hope of an improvement in their lives if they do well – that means they will be more widely known. For nations it will increase their profile and the positive associations surrounding them.

But that is half the work. The real work in brand building is that when you have made the brand known and created some positive associations it matters that you work hard at making sure the experience of the country matches or exceeds the associations  created...

I am a tourist, I have seen Stephen Kiprotich, Julius Cheptegei, Winnie Nanyondo and Halimah Nakaayi win on the world stage, so when I come to Uganda I am expecting the basics -- safety, comfort and convenience otherwise my experience will be soured and brand Uganda suffers. It is all connected.

So

"going to the Olympics should be more than cobbling together a bunch of athletes and sending them off with a hope and prayer, it should be seen in the context of a national branding strategy....

One interesting thing about the Olympics, or more specifically the US Olympic team – the US has no sports ministry.

WE ARE RICH, SPORTS PESA SUPPORTS THE CASE

As I agonized through the Manchester United -Everton match last weekend it struck me that the Everton shirt sponsor was sports betting house SportsPesa.

To distract myself from our dismal performance I looked up SportsPesa. The betting house is headquartered in Kenya with operations in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, the Isle of Man and the UK. Then I checked what they paid for the shirt sponsorship with Everton and it came down to £9.6m (sh46b).

As if that is not enough they have sponsorship deals with English premier league teams Arsenal, Hull City and Southampton, the Kenya national soccer team the Harambe stars, as well as league teams Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards and in Tanzania Simba and Young Africans.

In addition, they sponsor Kenya’s rugby sevens team, boxing, motorsport, athletics and golf. And they sponsor 100 grassroots teams around Nairobi for good measure.

I was amazed that a company with the bulk of its operations in Africa is able to splurge so much money, they must be pulling in big revenues.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding gambling and in our parts of the world, sports betting in particular. Beyond the moral questions, it is a drain on many youth’s earnings, the possibility of hitting the jackpot, sucking them in, addicting them in many instances and impoverishing them altogether.

Because the truth is in any betting game the odds are stacked in favour of the house. Punters may win once or twice but most of the time, the majority of the time, they will lose. And when you spread this among dozens, hundreds and even thousands of bettors it looks a sure deal for the betting houses that they will make money most times.

All that being said, what really got me thinking is that a company whose business is predominantly in Africa can throw off enough revenues to sponsor premier league teams.

That’s like saying your poor relative’s nephew offering to pay the fees of your urban schooling children until they are done with school. And even then I fear I understate the fact.

In my mind it throws out once and for all the notion that we are poor as a continent or its constituent countries, and firms up my belief that the problem is only that we have not aggregated our resources in meaningful sums to effect local change...

Think about it, the people in the betting houses, at least here in Uganda, are not predominantly your middle class or upper class people, but people who park their boda bodas outside the betting houses on match day or the night watchman coming to try out his luck or the street vendor who has made some money and hoping to multiply it before he goes home. Real bottom of the pyramid types.

The difference between SportsPesa and the rest of us is that they have a structure which can tap into these funds and funnel them into the business to the benefit of the shareholders and the token sponsorships and charities they support.

The betting houses here in Uganda are not too shabby either. In the recent economic slowdown sports betting remained a growth industry, giving many an exciting option to which they could divert their hard earned shillings.

SportsPesa was a startling example, but we see it over and over again. Most recently e-commerce firm Jumia sold shares on the New York Stock Exchange and raised about $200m in so doing. Most if not all their business is generated on the continent. Name any other multinational and it’s the same thing be they in beverages, telecommunications, finance or manufacturing.

They got organized to deliver a product or service and are laughing all the way to the bank.

True there are structural challenges, bureaucratic impediments and a deficient finance ecosystem but it is clear that our fate is not beyond salvage.

But first we have to get our mentality in order. Business success does not come by mistake, if it has, be sure it is not durable.

A few things to think about.

A business is successful because it delivers a good or service that is in demand in a cost effective way, that is that it sells its wares for more than the cost of producing and distributing them. Profit is a bye product of a job well done. So the focus should always be on delivering good products or service.

Secondly business owners need to decide early on in which category their business is in, defined by the founder’s mission. A business is started for four basic reasons – to sustain the lifestyle of the owners, to pass on to the next generation, to sell it to the market or to satisfy some overarching philosophy.

In the first two cases there is no incentive to grow beyond the needs of self and family, which puts a cap on the business growth potential. In the latter two cases the business owners have a huge incentive to organize, formalize their business not only so it can expand but so too, it can fetch a good price at the time of sale.

"The latter two are bigger missions which if the founders are bought into, means they will be able to weather the storms, overcome the speed bumps of setting up any enterprise. In the former two the staying power is not as great. Maybe explains why while Uganda is one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world the attrition rate by the time of the first birthday for most businesses, is almost total...

On an individual and even national basis we need to understand and appreciate that there is a wealth of resources available here that we haven’t even begun to tap into, this is even before we start thinking of mining our natural endowments out of the ground.

So yes, if we are so keen on ensuring we get a better shake on the exploitation of our own resources rather than call for the throwing up of barriers against foreign agents we would be doing ourselves a world of good if we got organized first.

YONA WAPAKABULO: QUIETLY CONFIDENT, CONTENT TO LET HIS WORK SPEAK FOR HIM

It always bugged him when people did not apply themselves, “Monkeys!” he called them.

Born on 8^th January 1972, he was a Capricorn and had the characteristic self drive of his star sign. He needed little to no external impetus to achieve his ambitions and often succeeded in spite of the outside circumstances. Hence his impatience with “monkeys”.

After a life first in Tanzania, where his father worked at the East African Community secretariat in Arusha and then in Papua New Guinea, Yona returned to Uganda with his family in 1986.

He first came to the attention of his homeland through his exploits with bat and ball, first at Kings College Budo, then Makerere College School, during which times he moonlighted for local clubs, played for Uganda where he was the linchpin in the team that won East & Central Africa Council in 1991.

In a 1992 league match he left an indelible impression on the history of Ugandan cricket, swatting away the opposing team’s attack to put on 212 runs in a single innings for his club Wanderers, a performance that had never been bested before or since....

After his A-Level he took a gap year to further his cricket ambitions in England. But Yona had lost time and, by his own admission, could not be competitive in a way that he thought he should be at the highest level of the game.  With some prompting from his father he went back to school and got his degree in marketing before returning to Uganda.

Never one to dwell on past glories he left his cricket accolades in his past to pursue a career in sales, marketing and communications.

It is testament to his success in this field that in the biography in the order of service book at his funeral, his cricket success occupied only two lines of the whole narration.

He really came into his own when he joined fledgling PR firm WMC Africa Ltd in 2003. Following the death of the founding partner, the affable Andrew Wandera, two years after he joined the firm, Yona took over the reins and led the firm to the next level.

Unimpressed by big names, he managed to cobble together a formidable young team, that now represents such blue chip companies as Stanbic Bank, Multichoice, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation but previously MTN Uganda, British Airways and Umeme.

His greatest legacy may still be that he built WMC ltd into a admirable business that, one of his contemporaries remarked, was growing when other industry players, squeezed by the economic downturn were cutting back on activities and staffing.

Given his achievements in his first and then second life, it would have been easy for Yona to be an insufferable braggart but he wasn’t. Gauged against where he wanted to be, he often said there was nothing to boast about, yet.

He was greatly ambitious for his business, spurning a juicy offer for the purchase of the business a few years ago; ambitious for his family, his children – Myles, Zora, Aurora, Diah and Shalom, who he was keen to give every opportunity to unlock their potential and he was ambitious for himself content to delay gratification to build a greater future.

Yona had no qualms denying himself for future progress, arguing that even if he passed on there would be someone else who would benefit from what he had laid down.

His worldview, shaped by his success at cricket and business, was that in order to do what one wanted to do, one first had to do what they had to do, the often unglamorous, grunge work and sacrifice, many are unwilling to do today.

"He was not flamboyant, by design, choosing to work his magic in the background, often spurning the praise and visibility that came with success, content in the knowledge that the ones who matter would notice...

Yona, averse to the limelight, took some convincing before he put up a signpost at his company’s recently acquired plot 101, Bukoto street, office block. He argued that he had no walk-in clients, laboring under the romantic notion that if his company was any good it wouldn’t need a sign post. He worked to that end.

Fiercely competitive and quick to voice his opinion if he needed to, no one who knew him thought he was a pushover or anyone’s fool.

A regular at the Lugogo Tennis Club, he often spent Sunday afternoons there with one eye on an ongoing cricket match. He was keen to support the club – supporting an interclub doubles competition and founding a Saturday morning children’s tennis clinic overseen by the legendary John Oduke.

He had his faults, not least of all that he did not suffer fools gladly, among friends or family, blacking them out with a dismissive waive of his hand. Prone to introspection, some thought he was proud and aloof.

Felled in his prime by infective endocarditis on August 6^th, some solace maybe gained from the Greek saying, “Those who the God’s love, die young”

Farewell Yona!

THE WORLD CUP … IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID!

I suffered withdrawal symptoms last week when, on Wednesday and Thursday there were no World Cup matches to watch.

It surprised me because I thought I was not emotionally invested in this year’s edition in Russia. Clearly I was wrong.

I have also been rereading my copy of Soccernomics, the enlightening book by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski, whose promise to explain, “Why England lose, Why Germany, Spain and France win and why one day the rest of the world will finally catch up” caught my eye, when I bought if before the last world cup in Brazil....

There is a new updated version that came out earlier this year.

Using data the authors unravel the mysteries of why Africa teams struggle on the international stage, that football clubs are best when they make losses, how the health of populations determine whether a country will be successful or not and that World Cups do not make money for hosting nations among other subjects.

It’s a veritable page turner.

What interested me was the author’s assertion that to be successful on the soccer world stage a county needs to have a GDP per capita of at least $15,000.

They worked out by going over hundreds of data points this was the magic number as it suggested that such countries have taken care of their basic needs and have enough money left over to build the infrastructure to identify and nurture world beating soccer players.

In World Cup history of the eight countries that have won the World Cup only two countries have economies that do not meet this criteria. Interestingly they are all from South America. Argentina winners in 1978 and 1986, Brazil in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. Uruguay who lifted the cup in 1930 and 1950 have a per capita GDP of $18,000. Brazil and Argentina’s numbers come in at $10,224 and $14,000 respectively.

But interestingly even those countries all European, which meet the criteria, the catchment area for their stars was the poorer sections of their society.

The explanation was that the middle class kids have school and other extracurricular activities while the poor are not only playing all the time but are more likely to give up their education to pursue a professional sports career.

With differing degrees of sophistication all these winners have an extensive soccer networks with teams at every level from toddler to the professionals. The Europeans have more sophisticated infrastructure compared to the South Americans, famed for learning their skills on the street using everything from oranges to stuffed socks.

They also showed that these countries are exposed to a lot of competition. Not only are their respective leagues very competitive, they have very competitive continental tournaments and play a disproportionately large number of friendlies annually.

And finally the corporate backing of the sport in all these countries is significant but it is underpinned by functioning governing bodies. Football associations who facilitate the recruitment, nurturing and placing of talent....

The long and short of It, the book, shows is that making it to the World Cup leave alone winning it is not the sole responsibility of the respective football federation. To paraphrase, it takes the whole country to win the World Cup.

There are no miracles. And whenever there is overnight success in soccer know it has been years in coming.

So we want to go to the world cup and even win it.

To get a seat at the table – you will not get a chance to win the World Cup if you are not participating in it, we need to grow our economy significantly.

At $15,000 per capita at the current population we need to grow our economy to $600b – about the size of Taiwan’s economy, from the current $25b.

Assuming the current economic growth rate of about 6 percent it would take us 55 years to hit the target.

A daunting prospect.

In order to increase the economic output this level investments infrastructure would have to remain consistent for the said period. We have a long way to go. For instance just to get to a middle income economy we have to quadruple the stock of paved roads to at least 88 km per square km of land from the current 20 km per unit area. And we would have to then quadruple it again to even come close to a $600b economy.

We need to get our power consumption to at least where Brazil’s. A 2014 estimate put Brazil’s power consumption per person at 287 kwh per year. At the same time Uganda’s was about 70 kwh per person.

And we haven’t even started talking about the quality of our human resource, which is key because you can have all the infrastructure in the world but if the quality of your human resource isn’t at a certain level this would count for nothing.

"There are no shortcuts. We will not fluke our way into the World Cup if our context is wrong...

If winning could be forced a former communist country would have been one of the eight winners of the World Cup. Only Czechoslovakia and Hungary have ever made the finals.

THE SHE CRANES DO IT AGAIN

Our national netball team, the She Cranes , finished their group matches at the Commonwealth Games,Wednesday on a high beating Scotland 57-37. This was a day after the She Cranes wiped the floor with the Wales team, in a match where our captain Peace Proscovia scored more goals than the entire Welsh team.

Peace accounted for 56 of Uganda’s 76 goals, while Wales managed 50 goals. The lesser heralded Rachel Nanyonga, whose scoring efficiency was better than Peace’s throughout the tournament, accounted for the remaining 20 goals.

While they tied with New Zealand and Malawi for second they failed to qualify for the semi-finals on account of New Zealand’s superior goal difference.

The She Cranes who went to the Commonwealth Games ranked 7^th in the world, will now play South Africa for fifth place. Regardless of the result they may very well become sixth in the world when the rankings are released. (Ed. The South Africa beat the She Cranes who then finished 6th in the Commonwealth Games)

It’s amazing what a few years can do.

Four years ago they qualified for the netball World Cup after making the more than a thousand mile road trip to Botswana. At that event they were so underfunded that they played matches without drinking water.

They almost did not make the world Cup as officials in the sports ministry dragged their feet in meeting pre-tournament requirements. They went anyway and gave a good account of themselves.

Last year at the African Championships they put all comers to the sword, winning the event without losing a match.

By the time the Commonwealth came around, everybody had long taken notice of our girls. They went ahead -- better kitted and facilitated this time around, to acquit themselves with distinction.

While netball maybe a peripheral sport, there are a few reasons why the She Cranes’ showing at the Gold Coast is significant.

"To start with, netball being mainly a sport played among former subjects of the British Empire, unlike other sports the commonwealth games brings together the best netballers in the world, so the She Cranes’ result is hard to fault...

Without taking away from our success in athletics, one would have to wonder what would have happened if the Ethiopians and Eritreans were running. Or in boxing where the Cubans, Americans and Europeans were not.

What this means is the She Cranes are the only sports team we have had in the history of independent Uganda to participate at the highest level of its sport. In effect they are the only world class sports people we have around.

What is even more startling is that they have done this while being treated as the orphan of Uganda’s sports portfolio. The travails the She Cranes have endured in their march to the pinnacle of their sport-- a few of which were mentioned above, are the stuff of legend.

And finally the discipline of the She Cranes on and off the court is hard to fathom, especially when we have known sportsmen of lesser achievement lord it over all of us with boorish behaviour and nauseating entitlement...

In their final match, Scotland adopted cynical tactics to keep goal scoring machine Peace off her game. While the Scots wilted under Uganda’s relentless pressure and eventually allowing Peace to drain 32 goals, what was even more remarkable was how the She Cranes kept their cool, did not respond in kind and went on to win the match handily.

There is a lesson for all of us Ugandans – netballers and non-netballers alike.

"That to achieve anything of enduring value you have to earn it. Life does no one any favours. There will be times when the odds are stacked against you, that the world seems unfair. There will be people, even trusted friends and relatives intent on keeping you from the promised land. And there is no guarantee that even after you put in the work that you will achieve your goal....

But you work anyway. Keep your head down, nose to the grinding stone and hope. And when you make it you remain humble because you know there is yet another mountain to scale.

Thank you She Cranes for showing yet again what it takes and means to be a true hero!

SPORT AS AN INDICATOR OF PROGRESS

Last week the Rugby Cranes qualified for the 2018 Seven-a-side World Cup, winning all their matches against teams from Tunisia, Morrocco, Ghana, Zambia in a dominant display that was able to overcome a hiccup against Zimbabwe at Legends Rugby club in Naguru.

A few meters away at the Lugogo Indoor Stadium City Oilers defended their title as FIBA Zone V Club Champions to book a place in the African Club Championships in December.

While the Uganda Cranes fell short of keeping their hopes alive for a first ever berth in the Soccer World Cup in Russia next year by drawing against Ghana, they showed enough presence to keep the promise that it’s only a matter of time before they appear on the world’s greatest sporting stage.

"In recent years our sportsmen have been enjoying a rich vein of form. Arguably we are on the cusp of regaining our past reputation as a sporting nation....

For a country to be a sporting nation two ingredients must be in place – a deep pool of talent and the organisation to channel that talent into glory.

Our country’s rich ethnic mix ensures that we have a deep talent pool, we don’t have to import our talent. The playgrounds of schools and neighbourhoods are bursting with talent.

A nationwide public school system and network of public sporting facilities was the foundation on which the early successes of the 1960s and 1970s were built. However these fell into disrepair starting in the Idi Amin era and have continued downhill ever since.

This meant that the early promise of pioneers like boxers Eridadi Mukwanga, Leo Rwabogo and John Mugabi and hurdler John Akii Bua, saw no follow through with no younger athletes coming in the wake of their pioneering steps.

It is possible that just like Kenya, whose middle distance athletes burst on the scene around the same time, that now we might have been a power houses in one discipline or another.

Almost four decades after the glory days, we are seeing a resurgence in sports that in some way is hard to reconcile with the facts on the ground.

Our public schools no longer serve as a pool for sporting talent and sporting facilities from Arua to Soroti from Gulu to Kabale have fallen into such disrepair as to be almost irredeemable or worse still have been disposed of to the highest bidder and only remain as blurry memories in the minds of old men and women.

In addition sports has not enjoyed a big budget from the state in the last four decades as more pressing priorities of infrastructure reconstruction and the resuscitation of social services took precedence over supporting the “luxury” of sport.

What is happening now that is different is that we have come to the realisation, like the rest of the world, that sport has great value as a vehicle for commercial interests.

So our sports men have dusted up the remnants of our sporting infrastructure, brought them up to a reasonable standard and started practicing again. Some benefactors have supported these budding sportsmen, not always in a very structured way and the results are beginning to show.

Which bring us to the second condition for sporting success – organisation.

"Given the above scenario it is clear that recent success has come inspite of many shortfalls that still remain in the sports ecosystem. To sustain or build on this success our sports administration have to become more organised. As it is now our sports are run by volunteers at best and self-seekers at worst who on one hand are in the job for the “love” of the sport or looking to make some quick killings – per diems and sport equipment grants they can then flog on the open market for a few shillings...

This organisational capacity is important. We have it backwards when we think that we are disorganised for lack of money, while actually we lack money because we are disorganised.

It comes as no surprise then, that our best funded sporting associations or events are the more organised ones, but even in those the funding taps would have opened even more had they been even more organised.

A winning sportsman cannot be created in isolation of his surroundings that’s why the countries of the Eastern bloc are floundering today  despite their history of great sports achievement.

EARN IT LIKE MAYWEATHER

By the time you read this column boxing’s richest payday will have been settled.

American Floyd Mayweather came out of retirement to fight Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor on Saturday night, in an event where win or lose Mayweather was guaranteed a $200m (sh750b) payday.

The figures are mind boggling but the principles around which that money can be made are the same whether you are millionaire sports man or the man with a rolex stand at the corner.

While you might not make Mayweather’s millions here are a few lessons from his heady journey up to the rarefied heights of sporting success that can set anyone on their way.

1.       Master your craft

It helped that Mayweather’s father and uncles had been professional boxers of some repute. It helped too that when Mayweather thought he needed to get a job to help out his mother, his grandmother advised against it and urged him to continue boxing. Since he was a child he has lived in the gym, claiming his father never did ordinary things with him when he was around. They say it takes 10,000 hours of regimented practice to attain world class standards in any field, that is about four hours a day, five days a week for ten years. There can be no doubt that Mayweather, who turned 40 in February, has done his time.

2.       Own your labour

In 2006 Mayweather paid $750,000 to buy out his contract and effectively take charge of his own career. Prior to that Mayweather was like other fighters with manager who would pay him a “salary” after every fight, regardless of how much money the fight has brought in. The manager would pocket the net after paying out all other expenses. The net effect of this often times is that the manager pockets a lot more than his fighter. In the last ten years of his career, Mayweather managed his own career, which allowed him to fight less but earn more, much, much, more. In prize money he has made more $500m in his career with most of it made in the last half of his career.

Essentially unless you are a thieving official, you do not get rich from working a job but by owning the job.

3.       Play in the biggest market

"You maybe the best in your chosen field, even own your labour but if you are not operating in a big enough market you have little chance of becoming exceedingly wealthy. If you set about to sell Rolex watches in Uganda you may need to sing for your supper more often than you would care. A similar business in the $12trillion GDP US market may have you laughing all the way to the bank. You probably have more success selling our own brand of rolex here than the pricey watches.

The question has to be, what are you selling and is there a huge enough market for it within your reach?  People may have laughed at Mukwano going into the bar-soap selling business three decades ago, no one is laughing now.

4.       Muster the art of marketing

The purists had their doubts about the Mayweather-McGregor fight, but these doubts were buried under a marketing blitz that turned what would have been a farce into a global must watch event. It is rarely true that if you make the best mouse trap people will automatically make a beaten path to your door. You need to increase awareness about your product and manage the perception of your product’s perception in your market’s mind, not only so you can make the first sell but also so you can keep making those sales. It’s called marketing. Blowing one’s trumpet is frowned upon in certain circles and among some generations but if they don’t know what you are selling how will they fork out the money to buy it...

5.       Money is not for eating

And finally Mayweather is known for his lavish lifestyle. Spending millions on clothes, cars and gambling. I would like to believe these were gimmicks, that his business wrote off as marketing expenses during his career. If you want to become seriously wealthy you need to understand that money is not for eating but for making more money. There are only two ways to spend money – you either eat or invest. In the former case you will soon spend all your money and at best be left with flitting but pleasant memories about the good times you had but at worst be saddled with unnecessary expenses needed to sustain your highflying lifestyle long after you are making the big bucks you were used to. The advantage of maintaining the attitude that  money is not for eating is that the more that is reinvested in the business the more it will earn you and then you can gorge yourself to your heart’s content.

Beyond the glitz and glamour surrounding Mayweather’s life the story of how he has converted from pugilist to a businessman, taking control of his own labour, is the bigger story for me. 

THE DIFFERING FORTUNES OF THE UK, UGANDA LEAGUES

Last week it was reported that Manchester United was the most valuable soccer club in the world. 

Audit firm KPMG using an algorithm that took into account a club’s profitability, popularity, sporting potential, broadcasting rights and stadium ownership, put the club’s value at €3.095b (sh12.7trillion)

The team from the North West of England, beat Spanish club Real Madrid into second place, followed by Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester city.

For Manchester United this is a far cry from the team, which started out as a department team for a railway company, went into receivership at the beginning of the last century, was relegated several times before the second world war and had to endure 41 barren years before it won its third league title in 1952 (so Arsenal should not lose the faith).

Closer to home it was reported that most teams in the just concluded soccer league season are staggering under the weight of massive debt, many have not paid their players in months.

If the richest sport in the country is suffering like this, one shudders to think about the lesser sports.

"A cursory look around our league throws up some disturbing facts. If we were to judge our teams against the aforementioned KPMG parameters none are profitable, a few are popular or own a stadium, most sporting potential is non-existent and the sh50m fees from broadcasting rights barely covers payroll....

It’s not difficult to see why this is so. Beyond a dearth of business management talent (I am not talking about having an MBA) most team structures are hobby associations than sustainable enterprises.

They generate little revenue from the traditional sources -- gate collections, membership, endorsement contracts or player transfer fees.

But even the little they get they lose to a combination of the officials’ sticky fingers and a general financial ineptitude.

Assuming our soccer officials are well meaning individuals who are totally out of their depth in trying to make a success of their teams, rather than rapacious sharks whose sole intention is to smash and grab, I recommend for the off season reading Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing”.

Kiyosaki has a simple model which he overlays on businesses to determine whether they are a worthy investment or not.

Called the B-I pyramid at its base it has cashflow, communication, systems, legal status and then at the peak the product. And this pyramid is further supported by the enterprise’s mission, leadership and team.

Notice that between the product – the entertainment, and cashflow the club’s legal status – the relationship between shareholders and members for instance, the systems the club employs to sustain the business and communication, in this respect our clubs continue to operate like the old Indian dukas where it was enough to throw the shop’s doors open and customers will come.

That could work those days when you were the only shop owner on Kampala road.

The interesting thing is that marketing ones product or self is so much cheaper than it was before. A face book page, a twitter handle, a SMS blast on match day can do wonders for a team. For much less than the price of a sugar cane

For all this to happen leadership comes first. What kind of leadership will lift our teams out of this quagmire? One with a vision for the club that will not only aim for success on the pitch but even more important one with a goal of long term sustainability. Not one with eyes bulging at the crumbs now available in the game.

Like a business a club can only grow as big as its promoter’s vision. The bigger the better.

And by the way this is not calling for a takeover of teams by egotistical money men, although leverage greed and vanity to build teams has worked before.

Barcelona FC which last year pulled in more revenue £570m than Manchester United, £515 is owned by the supporters, like many of our teams.

In Barcelona’s case leadership is more crucial than in Manchester United’s case in the latter’s case it is a “public” property and you know what they say – beware of the stupidity of people in large numbers.

"The point is that we have to realise that our sporting entities, not only soccer, are floundering not because of the economy or lack of government support or lack of talent, but for lack of leadership and more specifically business management. That’s the place to start. Once you have that in place everything else will fall in line...

But then again there is the real possibility that this is not news to the people who matter. I hope not because then you would have to wonder about their motives for not effecting it, for maintaining the status quo.

But in the event that this is all news, thank me later. Or better still pay me!

POGBA AND THE QUESTION, WHAT IS THE VALUE OF YOUR LABOUR?

Last week the announcement was finally made that French soccer player Paul Pogba was rejoining Manchester United for a record $150m (sh525b) from Italian club Juventus.

Pogba, whose father went to France from Guinea almost fifty years ago, will earn £290,000 (sh1.3b) a week at Old Trafford. Pogba, 23, now the most expensive player in the world, left Manchester United a few years ago under a cloud after then manager Sir Alex Ferguson denied him enough playing time in his superbly gifted team. They sold him to the Italian side for $1.5m!

Old news!

But this sliver of news from last week – it was all about the Olympics, asks the fundamental question how much is a person worth or more precisely how much is a person’s labor worth?

"Off the top of my head there are two determinants of how much a person’s labour is worth, how skilled that person is in whatever he does and the size of the economy that person is operating in....

The market will play for the value it thinks it can extract from you. So a major challenge for anyone looking for a higher paycheck is to increase the value – real and perceived that the market sees in you.

The real value comes with increased knowledge, which may or may not come from a formal education and increase experience, which can only come with time applied in exercising your skill.

"The 10,000-hour rule popularised by Malcom Gladwell in his book “Outliers” and again in the book “Talent is overrated” by Geoff Colvile speaks to this idea of how to increase one’s value. The books which reported on research done on classical musicians, showed that to attain world class standards at whatever endeavour, one has to have practised for 10,000 hours. Broken down this comes to about four hours a day, five days a week for ten years of deliberate practice....

But that only allows you a seat on the high table. If we are to log Pogba’s footballing career from the time he started kicking a ball at his home on the outskirts of Paris as a four year old to the present, he probably has been playing football for at least twice as long.

So what is it that you do? Have you done your 10,000 hours?

But doing your time is not enough. Because you might be the most skilled person in your field but the market does not recognise or appreciate your mastery.

One of the best things that happened to Pogba was that his father moved to France from the small west African country of Guinea. With this single stroke he improved his son’s prospects exponentially.

There is no way a talented Pogba would have been paid full value for his skill in a country of 11.6 million people with a per capita GDP of $558. If you are world class you have to expose yourself to  larger more lucrative  markets to be fully appreciated.

Thankfully now with the internet, marketing oneself globally is not impossible, and it’s safe to say if you are world class and put yourself out on the internet you will be discovered.

But It may happen too that you have all the above in place but the market is unwilling to pay you top dollar. Either because you are the wrong skin colour for the target market or you are female or just have bad handlers, then an accumulation of 10,000 hours learning to negotiate may come in handy.

"The truth is though, that if you have served your 10,000 hours in disciplined practice you will be hard to ignore...

In the 1990s Majid Musisi was discovered and played a few seasons for French side Le Havre, interestingly a former team of Pogba too. It helped of course that he along with SC Villa had featured in continental tournament finals two years in a row, but anyone who saw him play knew Uganda or even East Africa was too small for his immense talent. Ibrahim Sekajja has followed suit and Stephen Kiprotich too. 

There probably are a few hundred Ugandan professionals around the world going toe to toe with the best in their fields. That’s another thing, when you are world class you spend little time trying to impress villagers.

The bottom line clearly is one has to put in the time and in the case of Uganda that may be even that much harder, because people around you are “excelling” on less than a few hundred hours so why bother?

OF THE OLYMPICS AND WHITE ELEPHANTS

By the time you read this we will have been enthralled by a beautifully choreographed opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics. For the next three weeks we shall marvel at the feats of speed, strength and stamina of the young men and women who have endured blood, sweat and tears to perform on the world stage.

Unfortunately the Olympics – except for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, have proven to be a black hole for state resources and when the final finishing tape has been broken it has been difficult to discern the benefits to the hosting economy’s  of the quadrennial event.

"This is sad but not surprising. These extravaganza’s characterised by dodgy procurements and cost overruns have been proven to be what the resident technocrats need to finish their palatial homes or pay tuition for their pampered offspring. The promise of an economic boost or elevated global status often don’t materialise for the former and for the latter amount to 15 minutes of fame and not much else...

In fact hosting the Olympics in 2004 was at the heart of Greece financial woes a decade or so later. 

Borrowing heavily to spruce up infrastructure for the centennial games, after the games the Greeks were stuck with massive stadia that had little economic value once the show rolled on. But the debt had to paid. Like other developing nations the Greeks favourite past time is tax evasion so they were soon in a bind and almost found themselves out of the European Union when they were almost submerged by their debt obligations a few years ago.

The Olympics are great entertainment and I like most, will be watching with bated breath as the athletes tear down the track or the gymnasts tumble up and down the mat or the swimmers cut through the water. But I will be suspending disbelief because I know after the party will come the hangover.

To be fair all these lovefests should be hosted only by nations that can afford the subsequent losses.

Brazil is already staggering under hard economic times. The Olympics and the soccer World Cup of two years ago do nothing to raise incomes, improve services or improve the general wellbeing.

While it is the seventh largest economy in the world, just behind the UK, it has third world income inequalities. A Brazil has a gini coefficient – a measure of income inequality, of 0.505 with a figure towards zero being ideal and one towards one being disastrous.

"The estimated $12b or $60 per Brazilian, that has been used to host the event would have been better spent improving social services and more economically beneficial infrastructure...

"The Olympics are a white elephant for poor countries. A white elephant like roads to nowhere or overinflated power dams or unsustainable state owned airlines. And like all white elephants they are often dimmed necessary to increase the surface area for corruption and serve as an ego trip for powerful people. Unfortunately they are paid for by hard earned taxes....

I love the Olympics but one cannot help feeling that such events, are a racket by global elite to divert resources into theirs and their cronies’ pockets to the detriment of the rest.

Things would be very different if the bills for these events were footed by the companies, who now are the major beneficiaries of these events. You would have leaner, less extravagant effects which would still provide the entertainment value we have become accustomed to with little negative effect on the general public.

If wishes were horses.

They say that when businessmen lock themselves in a room together you know they are conspiring against the consumer.

So while I cheer on these young athletes achievements I will have at the back of my mind that we are being had – especially the Brazilian tax payer, and there seems nothing we can do about it.

Pass me the popcorn