By Max Patrick Ocaido
New Board members of Uganda National Oil Company Limited (UNOC) have been vetted by the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments.
The new appointees led by Board chairperson Emmanuel Katongole on Monday interfaced with the parliamentary committee chaired by the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga in a vetting session that took place at the South Committee Room in Parliament.
Katongole, an economist and businessman is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Limited – a leading pharmaceutical company and major supplier of anti-retroviral drugs in Uganda. He has been at the helm of UNOC since October 2015, when the President first inaugurated the board.
According to a source in the vetting room, all the appointees were successfully vetted and approved by the committee without any glitches. Other members of the Board are; Francis Nagimesi, a former Chief Executive Officer of the defunct Coffee Marketing Board, Francis Twinomatsiko, a principal economist in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED), Irene Pauline Batebe, a chemical/refinery engineer in the Directorate of Petroleum in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Biwaga Stella Marie, a lawyer working with FIDA, Uganda.
Others are; Godfrey Andama, a senior geoscientist, and Zulaika Mirembe Kasaijja, a city lawyer and partner with Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA).
In accordance with Section 44(1) of the Petroleum (Exploration, Development and Production) Act, President Yoweri Museveni on November 12, 2019, re-appointed the UNOC Board members, apart from Grace Tubwita Bagaya, whom he replaced with Mirembe Zulaika.
UNOC was founded to handle government's commercial interests in the petroleum sector and to ensure that the resource is exploited in a sustainable manner. The agency is also mandated to investigate and propose new upstream, midstream and downstream ventures initially locally and eventually internationally.
WHO IS EMMANUEL KATONGOLE?
Emmanuel started his career at Sembule Electronics Ltd in 1986 where he rose from sales officer to General Manager. In 1997, he started Quality Chemicals Limited, a pharmaceutical distribution company, where he served as Managing Director for 10 years.
He oversaw Quality Chemicals Ltd Partner with Cipla Limited India to set up a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant known as Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Ltd. He became the Chief Executive Officer of Cipla Quality Chemical Industries Ltd until 2013 when he was appointed Executive Chairman of the Company, a position he holds to-date.
Katongole further serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the London based TLG Capital, among other directorships. He has previously served as Governor Rotary International in charge of East Africa.
On top of several entrepreneurship awards that he has earned, Katongole was inducted in the prestigious Ernst & Young world Entrepreneur of the year Hall of Fame in Monte-Carlo Monaco in 2013. He holds an MA in Economic Policy and Planning of Makerere University –Uganda.
