Kisamba Mugerwa, who recently replaced former bank of Uganda Director of Supervision Justin Bagyenda as Chairman of Board of Directors of the Microfinance Support Centre Ltd (MSC), has announced the new members of his team.
Among the five member team that will join four others to work with Dr. Kisamba Mugerwa are Mayanja Gonzaga, Ruth Musoke Biyinzika, Juma Yusuf Kigozi Walusimbi and Robert Bariyo Barigye.
Mayanja is the Ag. Commissioner for Monitoring and Evaluation (Local Government) in the Office of the Prime Minister, and holds a Masters degree in Economic Policy; with a wide range of experience in decentralization, local government planning and budgeting, and monitoring and evaluation of development programs gained over 22 years of working with local and central government agencies.
He has coordinated several donor-funded programs in Northern Uganda and has conducted trainings on numerous subjects for both government and civil society organizations. He also an exemplary farmer in Masaka district.
Ms. Biyinzika is a member of the Senior Management Team at Private Sector Foundation Uganda, and has over 10 years proven working experience in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; and has worked extensively on complex development programs in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana for international donor organizations including European Union, African Development Bank and USAID.
She also has considerable experience in microfinance, having been involved in the set-up of 38 SACCOs for which she designed financial services products targeting SMEs.
Juma Walusimbi has over thirty-six years of illustrious central banking career with Bank of Uganda where he held several positions including Director Communications, Director External Debt Management and Deputy Head Banking Supervision.
He has extensive international exposure gained at negotiations on behalf of Uganda with various Development Partners and Multilateral Financial Institutions. He played a key role in the reduction and re-scheduling of Uganda’s external debt. He also engages in farming in Luwero district.
Barigye is the Assistant Commissioner of Cooperative Development and Policy in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, and holds a Master of Business Administration degree majoring in Financial Management and has close to seventeen (17) years of practical experience in capacity building across the economic and demographic stratum.
He has been instrumental in building and strengthening strategic partnerships between SACCOs, Unions and Area Marketing Enterprises to promote agricultural credit to farmers along the value chain.
He is a passionate farmer and environmentalist and is presently spearheading interventions to mainstream climate change mitigation and sustainable land use management in cooperatives.
The new directors embody the spirit of agricultural development and financial inclusion; and bring talent, expertise and energy to the table.
They join four other Directors Mr. Albert Odoi, Mr. Vincent Ssemakula, Dr. Birungi Korutaro and Mr. John Peter Mujuni (MSC Executive Director) – whose tenures are still running.
As for Dr Kisamba Mugerwa, who leads the team currently, serves as the Executive Chairperson of the National Planning Authority, a position he has held since 2008.
Prior to that, he was the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries; State Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and Member of Parliament from 1980-2004.
In 2009, he was appointed visiting professor for International Studies Rural Development at Williams College, Massachusetts USA and Senior Research Associate with Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). He has a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Makerere University and vast practical experience in various fields both locally and internationally. He is also a farmer in Luwero district.
The Microfinance Support Centre Ltd is a Government institution that was set up in 2001 with a dual mandate of offering affordable credit and business development services to Ugandan enterprises.
MSC boasts of a client database of over 5000 institutions and a disbursement of 324b to SACCOs, Groups, SMEs and MFIs across the country as at December 2017.
The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Matia Kasaija appointed a new board following the expiration of the tenure of five (5) members of the previous Board of Directors who have served two terms of three years each.
