Financial governance

Institutions don't fail for lack of capital. They fail for lack of governance.

I'm Turyahabwe Dickson. For more than twenty years I have built and strengthened the financial institutions that anchor East Africa's economies, and taught more than 200 of them to govern themselves properly.

Start with the scorecard Download my profile

✓ CPA (Uganda) & CPA (Rwanda) ✓ Founder, Dickson Associates CPA ✓ 20+ years in the field

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Governance score

ModerateFunctional, but vulnerable to shocks

200+

institutions trained across East Africa

Where boards lose points

Board

Risk appetite

Succession

CordaidAMIR RwandaUNDPMinistry of Trade, Uganda EnabelOikocreditIFADWorld Bank programmes

Where to start

Three institutions. Three pressures.

◧

I'm a SACCO or MFI leader

Your regulator is asking harder questions and your board cannot answer them from its own records. Start with the diagnostic, then I fix what it finds.

Take the scorecard →

◨

I'm a board chair or director

You need to know whether the numbers you are given are true, and whether your controls hold when you are not in the room. I have run a board, and I sit on the other side of the table.

Board advisory →

◩

I'm a development partner or funder

You need an implementation partner who has delivered in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, and who can account for outcomes with real data.

Selected engagements →

What I do

Six disciplines. One standard.

My work spans six areas, and all of them serve one purpose: making a financial institution strong enough to survive its first shock, its first audit and its first difficult year.

Audit and assurance

Statutory, internal and forensic audit work inside regulated institutions, including forensic reviews for development programmes.

Financial management

Budgeting, treasury, costing and reporting, and the financial models a lender or investor will test before they commit.

Transaction and investment advisory

Due diligence, investment appraisal, business plans and restructuring, from the position of having run the institution rather than only assessed it.

Strategy and governance

Board structure, risk appetite, policy frameworks and the decisions that determine whether an institution survives.

Capability development

Training boards and executives on the decisions they actually have to make, using the institution's own numbers.

Sector innovation

New ground: digital financial services, MSME formalisation, circular economy and climate finance, where governance has to be designed at the same time.

See how I work →

How the work runs

Prevent. Diagnose. Transform.

PREVENT

Controls that work before something goes wrong

Board structure, risk appetite, policy frameworks, segregation of duties, and a supervisory committee that actually supervises.

DIAGNOSE

Read the institution against the standard

The scorecard and a deeper review. Records, board minutes and portfolio data read the way a regulator or a funder would read them. You end up with a written finding your board can act on.

TRANSFORM

Done with your team, not sent to them

Policy adopted, capability built, and a governance summary the board can show a regulator or an investor with confidence.

Read the governance scorecard →

Selected engagements

Where I have done this.

Uganda · 2008 to 2009 · General Manager

Wazalendo SACCO, Uganda's largest SACCO

A newly formed SACCO serving UPDF and Ministry of Finance staff, with no lending systems, no accounting controls and no governance structure in place. I built all three from nothing, and held portfolio at risk below 2% while it grew.

Systems built at the start cost a fraction of systems rebuilt after a loss.

Rwanda · 2026 · Team Leader

AMIR Rwanda

Microfinance institutions and SACCOs across Rwanda with inconsistent lending practice, weak risk controls and limited digital capability. I led a capacity programme across 22 institutions in loan appraisal, risk, compliance and digital finance.

Training works when it uses the institution's own loan files.

Uganda · 2022 · Consultant

Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives

A cooperative sector in distress, with weak governance and declining member confidence. I developed the national turnaround strategy and the regulations that followed.

Sector governance fails for the same reasons institutional governance does.

Rwanda · 2025 · Team Leader

Cordaid Rwanda

Business development services reaching national policy but not the districts where enterprises operate. I led a team strengthening service delivery across 14 districts.

Policy is only real when it arrives with someone able to implement it.

See the full record →

The vision

Stronger financial institutions, built by capable people.

My vision is to help build a stronger, more inclusive and accountable African financial sector by strengthening the people, institutions and leaders that drive it. The focus is not on creating more institutions, but on building well-governed and sustainable ones that protect customers and members, manage risk, comply with regulation and create lasting value.

Read the vision in full →

The approach

Learn → Apply → Mentor → Coach → Measure → Improve

Through advisory work, professional training and Dickson Financial Academy, the aim is to close the gap between financial knowledge and real-world implementation.

Insights

Short, practical pieces on the governance decisions boards actually face. No jargon and no theory for its own sake.

Read the latest →

The Academy

I founded Dickson Financial Academy, where SACCOs, MFIs, cooperatives and MSMEs learn financial governance through a curriculum and monthly clinics.

Visit the Academy →

The books

Written for the shelf beside your board pack, rather than for the academic library.

Books and publications →