Profile with Muloongo Muchelemba
Muloongo Muchelemba (Zambia & Harris Manchester, 2002) is the Director of Selection for Rise, a joint initiative by The Rhodes Trust and Schmidt Futures to identify brilliant teens who seek opportunity to serve others for life. Before joining The Rhodes Trust in August 2021, Muloongo spent over 17 years working in oil and gas, management consulting and corporate banking in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. Muloongo is a Chartered Management Accountant and holds a MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford as well as a BA in Economics from the University of Zambia.
Rhodes Project: What is your favorite thing to do in Lusaka?
Muloongo Muchelemba: Spending quality time with family and friends. Lusaka is not like London where you have museums, theatres, concerts, exhibitions and other forms of entertainment. Life revolves around social circles and is very laid back compared to the hectic pace of London. Gatherings revolve around food and everyone has a barbecue stand at home so weekends are spent eating, chatting and laughing with family and friends. The weather is great all year round with day-time highs of 15-20 degrees in winter so I spend more time outdoors than in London. And when I need a break from Lusaka, I jump on a plane and head to South Luangwa, which is my favourite safari park.
Rhodes Project: Can you recall a favorite childhood memory from Zambia?
Muloongo Muchelemba: My favorite memory of my childhood is that I actually had a childhood. I spent it playing games outside and climbing trees - I have the scars to prove it! My brother, cousins and I would also play with our toys and use our imagination to create adventures much like the babies in one of my favorite cartoon series, the Rugrats. Today, I look at my nephews and nieces who have grown up in Europe and the U.S. and their idea of fun is sitting in front of the computer chatting online, watching movies and playing games. I feel sorry for kids today because technology has taken away the innocence of the childhood that I look back on so fondly.
Rhodes Project: When did you first become passionate about working with businesses?
Muloongo Muchelemba: Both my parents are economists and I was raised in a house where we always talked about the economy. My father served as a diplomat in Europe, Africa and Japan which exposed me to the positive effects of capitalism and had me dreaming about the world of business from a young age. Western economies are driven by big businesses whilst Zambia doesn’t have many big companies (other than the mines) to help power the economy and we rely heavily on an inefficient State. I worked in corporate banking in Zambia for two years and was encouraged to see pan-African companies emerge. Hopefully some of them will become global players that are listed on stock exchanges in London, New York and Hong Kong.
Rhodes Project: What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Muloongo Muchelemba: I took a break from corporate to work on a programme called Rise, whose mission is to identify talented 15-17 year-olds from around the world who need opportunity, such as higher education funding. Some of the Rise Global Winners come from underprivileged backgrounds such as refugees, orphans and low income families. Rise will change their life trajectory! Some of our winners are now studying at United World College campuses around the world and many are going to universities in the US and UK.
Rhodes Project: What is the most challenging part?
Muloongo Muchelemba: Trying to decide what to do next! I enjoy the purpose of the work I am doing in philanthropy but miss working in corporate.
Rhodes Project: Can you tell me about a favourite project?
Muloongo Muchelemba: I launched a Pan-African blog called ongolo.com on 1 April 2020 with a mission to change the narrative about Africa. One of my frustrations with mainstream media is that the news reporting about Africa mainly focuses on corruption, crime, disease and poverty. There is more to Africa than that and my blog aims to present a more balanced and fair view of the continent. I publish articles on consumer news, economy, life, people, politics, sports and travel.
Rhodes Project: What advice would you offer a young woman considering a career in finance?
Muloongo Muchelemba: I think if you are trying to get into finance in general, the first piece of advice I would give would be to reach out to people and find out exactly what they do and what their job is really like day-to-day. Reach out not only through your network, but also through LinkedIn. I find LinkedIn to be fantastic. Sometimes I contact random people who went to either my university in Zambia or Oxford or who know someone that I know. I started my career with Shell because I was interested in learning how businesses made money and what drove the decision-making in oil and gas. I also like having a variety of work, travelling and being able to talk to various stake-holders from the CEO or CFO to the cashier. I found those aspects in management consulting and corporate banking too.
It’s important to decide what it is about finance that you want to get involved in and which sort of industries you are interested in. So I would advise you to understand yourself and what motivates you and to figure out what you want from your day job. You also need to have a feel of the working environment, have a walk around and observe how people work.
Rhodes Project: If you had unlimited resources to address one issue – global or local – what would it be and why?
Muloongo Muchelemba: It would be investing in schools and ensuring that more people have access to education. I would start with Zambia because we have a population of about 20 million people and probably around half of them are less than 18 years old. The number of schools is not sufficient for the population. We have a pyramid shaped system of education where there are a lot of primary schools, not many good secondary schools and just a handful of universities. So many people get left behind at every stage. Education provides a solid foundation for one to become whoever or do whatever they want to do in life.
Rhodes Project: Is there any particular aspect of mentoring that has made an impression on you?
Muloongo Muchelemba: I used to mentor a student at South Bank University and supported her during her final year when she was applying for graduate roles. Her high school grades weren't good so even though she went on to graduate with a First, none of the big Four professional service firms would consider her application. She eventually managed to get a job at a small firm and is doing really well. I've told her that everyone has a different path in life so it may take her longer to get to where she wants to but she just has to stay focused. Her story is the reason I have a keen interest in secondary school students.
Rhodes Project: What inspires you?
Muloongo Muchelemba: Resilience and people who’ve managed to overcome setbacks. The story J.K. Rowling tells in the commencement speech she delivered at Harvard in June 2003 is still one of my favorites. She talked to the students at Harvard about the importance of failure. When she was in her twenties, despite having a degree in classics, she was divorced, a single mother and poor “just short of being homeless” is the way she put it. She wrote Harry Potter when she was struggling to make ends meet and yet when you see her now, she’s completely turned her life around. I think stories like that, of people who had everything going against them but stayed focused and had a dream that they went after, are what really inspire me. I've learnt that if you fall, you need to pick yourself up quickly and continue, or find a new path if things are not going the way you wanted.
Back to Scholar Profiles K-N
© 2023