Museveni replaces Doris Akol as URA head, appoints new BoU deputy governor

President Yoweri Museveni has replaced the head of the Uganda Revenue Authority, two years into her second term, and also appointed a new deputy governor for the Bank of Uganda to replace Louis Kasekende whose contract expired in January. 

“By virtue of powers granted to me by the constitution, I have appointed Mr John Musinguzi Rujoki as the new commissioner general of @URAuganda,” the president said on Twitter on Sunday. “This appointment takes immediate effect.”

Mr Musinguzi replaces Doris Akol who has headed the tax body since 2014. She was appointed to a second five-year term in 2018. Mr Museveni’s statement gave no other details on the change. 

“I have also appointed Dr Michael Atingi-Ego as the new deputy governor, Bank of Uganda. I have forwarded his name to Parliament for vetting,” Mr Museveni said. 

Mr Atingi-Ego will replace Louis Kasekende who left the bank in January after his contract expired and was not renewed. Mr Kasekende’s departure brought an end to his second term as deputy governor of the bank, a position assumed in January 2010; his first term was between 1999 and 2002. 

Mr Musinguzi was, before his appointment to head the revenue authority, a senior presidential adviser on investment and ICT. He was also an intelligence operative with the Special Revenue Protection Service, a military unit that was attached to, but not controlled by, the tax authority, rising to head its finance and audit section (the commander of the SRPS at the time was Kale Kayihura, who was later appointed Inspector General of the Police).

In addition, Mr Musinguzi is the chairperson of the board at the National Information Technology Authority – Uganda, a government parastatal charged with regulating information technology services in the country. He has a BSc in Mathematics from Makerere University and an MSc in Computing and Information Systems from the University of Greenwich. 

Before his appointment, Mr Atingi-Ego was the executive director of the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa, a regionally owned institute with 14 member countries based in Harare. Before that, he was the deputy African department director at the International Monetary Fund. He also served as the executive director for research at the Bank of Uganda.

Mr Atingi-Ego has a PhD in Economics from Liverpool University, an MSc in Economics from the Cardiff Business School at the University of Wales, and a BSc in Economics from Makerere University.