Dfcu Group has appointed experienced business executive Jimmy Mugerwa to chair the financial services company, replacing Elly Karuhanga who retired from the board last year in August.
The company also announced the appointment of Christine Echookit Akello, a lawyer, to its board to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Albert Jonkergouw “due to regulatory requirements at the subsidiary Dfcu Bank Limited, where he remains a director.”
The new independent non-executive chair is also retiring from Dfcu Bank’s board — which he chaired — alongside Willem Cramer. Dfcu said that Winifred Tarinyeba-Kiryabwire will replace Mr Mugerwa as non-executive chair of the bank.
Mr Mugerwa is the former managing director of the Ugandan subsidiary of Tullow Oil PLC, a position he held for eight years; Tullow exited Uganda in 2020 after selling its stake in the country’s oil and gas projects to TotalEnergies. Before joining Tullow, “he worked for over 19 years for Royal Dutch Shell in senior business leadership positions” in Africa and Europe. Mr Mugerwa is a non-independent director at several local and regional companies.
Ms Akello “previously served as the deputy executive director of the National Environment Management Authority providing leadership, corporate and strategic guidance, as well as advising on organisational strategic positioning and functionality, organizational culture and organisational structure,” Dfcu said in a statement.
Ms Tarinyeba-Kiryabwire, the new chair of Dfcu Bank, joined its board in 2019 and was the first chair of the bank’s Women Business Advisory Council. An associate professor of law at Makerere University, “She has previously served on the boards of Financial Sector Deepening Uganda, African Alliance, Makerere University Holdings, Gatsby Microfinance, [and] Basic Needs Uganda.”
