Grace Nshemeire Gwaku is the chief operating officer at Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU). Before the role, she worked in Kenya and the United Kingdom. She talked to Esther Oluka about her working experience and the fundamental lessons women can learn from the journey.

The offices of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) sit on the crest of part of Kampala’s hidden hills, in Nakasero.
On a Friday morning, Grace Nshemeire Gwaku, who works as the chief operating officer at PSFU, sits at her office desk behind a laptop responding to several emails sent in by colleagues.
“We do almost everything here using technology,” a smiling Ms Gwaku says as she elaborates that the move is geared towards adapting to the evolving digital times.
At the organisation, part of her role revolves around offering leadership for the organisation including overseeing direct operations of finance, human resources, procurement, public relations, and communications and operations.
Other responsibilities include managing relationships with partners as well as establishing staff performance and development goals.
Gwaku has had that position since March 2022. Before that, she worked in other organisations outside Uganda in different positions. Among the roles she held outside the country include serving as the regional head of marketing for international premium spirits and reserve brands at East African Breweries Ltd, based in Kenya (June 2019 to August 2020) as well as the global marketing manager for Guinness, Malta Guinness and Orijin, in London, United Kingdom (August 2015 to June 2019).
The working environment and culture have been varied in different workspaces.
“Kenyans are excellent and professional with their work,” she says.
During her working stint in the United Kingdom, Gwaku says that workers embraced the use of technology a lot.
“Before the use of Zoom became a big thing here in Africa during the Covid season, it was already being embraced in the Western world,” she says.
It has been a whole different experience in Uganda with Gwaku saying that managers have to continuously push and encourage staff to do their work.
“When I came to work in Uganda, I had a written work plan but had to quickly unlearn my way of doing things. I came to realise that even simple things such as opening and responding to emails, some staff were not doing this. I therefore had to adjust my way of doing things. These days, if someone does not respond to an urgent email, I instead walk to their office to either remind them or deliver the intended message,” she says.
Leading and impacting the lives of women
As much as PSFU has a fair representation of women and men at respective management levels, Gwaku elaborates that she is more conscious about working with females because of the home responsibilities they carry.
“So, when someone says she cannot come to work early because she is attending to her sick child first, I am mindful of that because I know that away from the office, women are also mothers and wives,” she says.
Her soft spot for women also stems from the additional biases corporate women continue to face in their respective workplaces.
“I understand what women go through based on my own experiences. I have been there. I remember as I rose in my career, I was teased on whether I would ever find a man to marry me because of my accomplishments,” she says.
For these reasons, Gwaku says she is happy mentoring younger female staff to show them the ropes on how to excel in their own positions. In one of her previous roles, an underperforming female staffer who was on the edge of getting fired was handed over to her to mentor.
“Everyone had given up on her. But I sat with her and had a heart-to-heart conversation asking her to work with me and in return, I would offer all the support she needed,” Gwaku says.
She adds: “That girl pushed and worked very hard. She impressed me and proved everyone wrong.”
Besides enjoying seeing her mentees prosper, Gwaku says she is happiest when she is also achieving her targets and her team is performing well.
Terminating people’s employment contracts are her lowest moments on the job.
On whether she has ever experienced a rough patch while adjusting to any of her previous roles, Gwaka speaks in the affirmative.
While serving at Uganda Breweries Ltd as the marketing, innovations and customer marketing director, from November 2012 to August 2014, she acknowledges that the first six months on the job were very tough.
“I found it very tough because prior to the job, I had worked in other organisations outside the country. So, when I joined the breweries, I found different working dynamics and culture,” she says.
But rather than give up, Gwaku says she had to make it work by pushing for teamwork and building strong relationships with other departments, and she excelled.

Advice to other women
To women who want to become leaders, Gwaku advises that they develop a reputation of authenticity, professionalism and discipline. Additionally, she encourages women to get mentors, people who will hold their hand throughout the ups and downs of their careers.