Josephine Wapakabulo

‎‎Josephine Wapakabulo, is an electrical engineer and business executive. She served as the founding chief executive officer of Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC). She was appointed in June 2016, being the first person to serve in that position. She resigned as UNOC CEO, with effect from 13 August 2019, "to focus on her family and new opportunities".

Quotes

‎Progress in Focus: Interview with Uganda’s National Oil Company CEO

• There are two sides to it, obviously the course itself, which you can see has been well thought-out in terms of the topics it covers; and then the people and the connections that you make and the learning from each other.
• My fellow Ugandans, who I’d previously met in Uganda.
• We’ve had more time to interact and discuss issues and come up with ideas.
• Then there’s the debate.
• I really enjoy the open debate, thinking, looking at things in other ways, getting other perspectives on things.
• That was what I was hoping for and I am definitely getting that.
• In Uganda, my colleagues and I are dealing with operational issues related to the sector.
• We have a chance to think, away from the day-to-day.
• The conversations are more strategic, more long-term, as opposed to the operational stuff we are dealing with every day when we are in meetings.
• I really had some epiphanies on some of the challenges I face.
• I really enjoyed the two country simulation, and role-playing president-for-the-day.
• A lot of what we were doing in that artificial environment were real things.
• I am dealing with on a crossborder pipeline.
• It was interesting to have other people in my group saying.
• You’re going through that and I could really bring my experience to what was happening but also gain insights on how to deal with things.
• I really understand and own the fact that I am profit-driven, not to the exclusion of the other functions a state oil company can deliver.
• Having a framework to filter that through will help me engage some of the stakeholders who are focused on ideas.
• I have got an approach that will help me communicate with some of my political stakeholders back home.
• I just need to get to first oil and to do that there are so many contractual agreements.
• To get through them I need good advice, advisors: legal, commercial, technical.
• To get good advisors I need money, and money is a challenge.
• You actually produce I need money for the extraction projects, money for supporting infrastructure like roads.
• I need money now when I am doing the contracts, for good advisors, so I don’t fall into the pitfalls we’ve identified during the course.
• I realized early on there was too many of them so I said.
• I went back to my central bank and the Ministry of Finance and said, “We do need to raise money, and money for advisors is one thing, but we need up to USD 1 billion for the projects.
• The good thing is we have now engaged the ministry and the central bank and we have regular meetings on how we are going to raise that money so I am less worried about the money for the projects.
• I know we will get there because we are working together.
• I didn’t say to the bankers ,Oh yeah, great, I’ll sign up with you.
• I am going back to my central bank and my Ministry of Finance to make sure we are aligned.
• I make will have a huge impact.
• The advisors are there.
• There’s lots of good firms. But they come at a premium.
• That’s why even the big 100-year-old international oil companies pay experts to negotiate for them.
• We’re right at the start I don’t even have oil yet.
• I need to get good advice to get good contracts so I am maximizing that revenue once it starts.

‎Interview: UNOC’s Wapakabulo Says Uganda Unaffected by Falling Oil Revenues

• The vision for UNOC is to have commercial interest across the value chain.
• In high barrier to entry, high skill areas, generating as much revenue as possible for the country, and separated from regulating and licensing.
• UNOC has a critical role in building, empowering and supporting the local supply chain beyond the core oil and gas sector.
• That even if UNOC is not there, they should continue to operate successfully across other sectors.
• UNOC needs to find the right balance to gain as much value as possible from the sector on behalf of the state.
• Ensuring that enough supporting sectors beyond the very core high barrier to entry are left to Ugandans to develop.
• NOCs should be cooperating on a skills and knowledge transfer level among themselves and IOCs.
• They should also share potential commercial opportunities, such as resource rich countries collaborating with countries with refining capacity.
• UNOC has already started developing relationships with other African NOCs and even beyond Africa.

External links

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