New BOU governor, deputy face MPs

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Newly appointed Bank of Uganda chiefs are today (February 11, 2025) being vetted by Parliament's Appointments committee.

The committee, chaired by Speaker Annet Anita Among, is vetting proposed governor Dr Michael Ating-Ego and his deputy, Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba. Ating-Ego has been serving as deputy governor since April 23, 2020.

Dr Michael Ating-Ego. (Courtesy)

The development follows President Yoweri Museveni exercising of the powers vested in Article 161(2) and (3)(a) of the 1995 Constitution appointing the individuals and their names and CVs being submitted to Parliament for approval a day earlier.

Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba. (Courtesy)

The Central Bank has been operating without a substantive governor since Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile died on January 23, 2022.  

The BOU Act as amended says in the absence of the governor the deputy governor takes charge and so Atingi-Ego has been in charge.

Mutebile, who served as BOU governor and chairman of its board of directors from 2001, died a day before President Museveni fully opened the economy for business after nearly two years of the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

There is no prescribed time within which the President must appoint the governor who, analysts say, is both a person but more so an institution.

“He does executive administrative functions as chief executive officer or managing director of the central bank but also chairs the monetary policy committee, which as a committee, is not a person,” Dr Fred Muhumuza, a senior economics lecturer at Makerere University, told New Vision recently.