Profile: Moses Okudu

After Pastor Peter expressed an interest in Business Training I send a few emails and arranged a meeting with Moses. Moses is the Executive Director of the Business Development Center (see bdcuganda.com), here in Uganda.

Previously Moses worked for Feed the Hungry International, and was part of the Transforming Nations Alliance. Through that organisations like his we’re partnering to equip communities to be self sustaining after a natural disaster. Commonly they were finding that five years after the national disaster, countries were showing positive signs of recovery. At that point, the organisations assistance would start to withdraw, giving the country its independence. Unfortunately, with that, left a large proportion of the skills and talent that was facilitating the change. When revisiting projects years later they found that the country was in a worst state than when they first arrived.

The real need was in equipping the local church with the skills needed to rebuild a city. To leave the skills behind with the people to enable them to rebuild their lives.

A few years later, and this developed into The Business Development Center, whose focus is on training and equipping people with a Kingdom understanding of business, and the practical skills required to help them succeed in their venture.

The foundation of a city Is built on Business, and too long have we as the church focused our efforts on other areas, neglecting this sector. It’s believed that 90% of business here in Uganda is controlled by Muslims. Why? When the Christian missionaries first arrived they invested time and money in education, government and building church (all good things), but neglected business. When Islam arrived the only place they could grow in was by carrying on with the skill set they had, as traders.

The church historically has had a very negative theology of work and business (which I shall explore in a future post). Moses is working to change this view, as a partner of CMS Africa, and hopefully (only time will tell) as a partner of the Baptist Union of Uganda.

By Andy Galpin

Strategy Consultant for IBM. Passionate about God, and equipping His church to fulfil the great commission. Blog on mission, life and leadership. My opinions are all my own and do not represent IBM.

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