The many hats of Mulumba Lwatula ’19: Senior analyst, entrepreneur and ALUSB MBA student

From leading projects at the Industrial Development Corporation in Zambia to kick-starting independent enterprises and embarking on an MBA journey at ALUSB, Mulumba Lwatula ’19 is a man with many responsibilities. There are both risks and opportunities attached to juggling different duties, but Mulumba has found a way to make it work. We sat down with him to talk about the different roles that he occupies on a daily basis:
Senior Analyst

At the top of the list is his role as a senior analyst in business development at the Industrial Development Corporation in Zambia, a position that marked the departure from Mulumba’s previous career as an ICT professional. This career switch was motivated by his passion for business: “I have always been interested in business, even when I was in the tech field. Building businesses and coming up with solutions for people’s needs has always been a passion of mine.” So when the opportunity to get into business development at IDC came up, Mulumba took the challenge head-on.

A couple of years into his second career path, Mulumba is now travelling across Zambia, following up on existing projects and kick-starting new ones. His busy schedule allows little time for uniformity; one week he’ll be in Lusaka establishing the national airline, and the next he’ll be in the northern part of the country overlooking the presidential launch of the ZamPalm plantation.

“Every week is different. We run several projects across several sectors, so a lot of what I do includes checking up on the progress of some of these projects. But essentially, it all revolves around the IDC mandate: bringing about industrialisation in Zambia, creating jobs and turning around state-owned enterprises.

Entrepreneur

In addition to his role at IDC, Mulumba is also an entrepreneur at heart. His passion for problem-solving led him to start several businesses of his own. This is something that is very much supported at ALU School of Business. Through courses like Entrepreneurship and Innovation, students learn about the instrumental role of entrepreneurial ventures on the continent and are encouraged to put that knowledge into practice. The E&I course ends with a Lions Den event, where the ALUSB students go through the real-life experience of defending their idea to a critical jury of potential investors.

The winner of the ALUSB Lions Den in 2018 was none other than Mulumba himself! He successfully managed to sway the jury with ‘Soko’, a digital platform with the goal of increasing financial inclusion in Zambia. Winning this competition incentivised him to go forward with the actualisation of his idea. “What started out as my entrepreneurship and innovation project has become my capstone project and will become my future business. Winning this competition has galvanised me to push even harder to make this idea a reality.

ALUSB MBA student

“The work that I do today and the work that I plan on doing in the future will be expanding more and more across Africa.”

To top it all off, Mulumba is also a member of the Class of 2019 at ALUSB. “My decision to get an MBA was obviously related to the job that I am doing today. I felt like I needed to develop myself further, where business knowledge was concerned. I wanted to make sure that I was exposed to tools that would allow me to perform at my very best.

Having lived and worked in almost every corner on the continent, Mulumba is a pan-African in the true sense of the word. So when he decided to pursue his MBA, he looked for a business school that shared his African-centred vision.

“My outlook has always been pan-African. The work that I do today and the work that I plan on doing in the future will be expanding more and more across Africa. So ALU School of Business spoke to everything I aspired to be.”

Although this MBA journey at ALUSB has been very gratifying for Mulumba, combining all these responsibilities is not always an easy task. Thankfully, he has the essential tools to maintain his balance: personal drive, support from his ALUSB classmates, and the ultimate motivators; his sons. “My boys are a great source of balance for me. Everything I do, I do to leave a legacy they will be proud of.”

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