George Abili: Finding the Adventure in Revenue Assurance

GRAPA member George Abili  spoke with staff writer Kathy B. while attending  a recent training event. George has a degree in economics and is a certified public accountant. He started his career with the Ministry of Finance in Uganda and was part of a team that set up an integrated financial management system program to computerize government accounting. “This was a country wide implementation of a financial system. I was involved in that project for five years.” During that time, he was also involved with IT and created white papers in networking and computers.

George then joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in the process assurance function. This is part of the auditing field that supports the main financial accounting group , using IT to help businesses such as telcos, banking and manufacturing.

He stayed with PricewaterhouseCoopers for a year and then joined Warid Telecom in Uganda. “I started as a senior executive in revenue assurance and was involved with the management systems. Since June of 2009, I have been head of the revenue assurance department. Warid is a new company and launched commercially in Feb 2008. The department was in place when I began, but of course everything was still new and it is still a growing unit. I am helping develop the function further so it is more useful to the organization,” he explains.

Because of his experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers, George was already familiar with the telco environment, but he felt he did not have the whole picture. “The main difference in telcos is that things happen so fast. Changes happen almost every day. You really have to be on your toes all of the time. You have to be flexible to keep up with the new changes, programs or products.”

Outside of his work life, George admits to being a sports addict. “I keep a small window open on my laptop every day so I can watch sports scores and news, be it golf, cricket, Formula One racing, you name it.” Until recently, he played cricket, and still plays football.

George loves adventure too and often explores the countryside. Uganda is very diverse, culturally and geographically and George enjoys taking road trips to meet new people and see new areas. He has also participated in charity events, driving off-road vehicles to raise money for a chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda. The races, routed over challenging terrain, tested George’s driving skills and the ability to work with a navigator. In one event, George triumphed over the tough course and conditions to finish in first place. “I have a short attention span, I don’t like to be bored, so I look for new ways to have fun and challenge myself. I enjoy being with friends, I like to learn new things everyday. I think if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space.”

The GRAPA Blog features profiles of attendees of GRAPA training and GRAPA members.