Felix Okoboi, the new wunderkind in Uganda’s corporate corridors of power He may not yet be a Martin Aliker, James Mulwana and Elly Karuhanga who dominated Uganda’s board rooms in the 2000s through to the 2020s, and had ‘keys’ to most doors of power in government and the private sector but the meritocratic rise of Felix Okoboi is unmissable. The engineer/architect who turned into a Wharton-trained corporate finance guru, has over the last three years, gained ground in boardrooms of some of the region’s finest companies; a telltale sign of where his corporate star may be headed.

Last week, East African Breweries Limited (EABL), the region’s leading branded alcohol beverage business and a subsidiary of Diageo, the global alcohol giant announced that it had appointed Felix Okoboi as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

The appointment took effect on 30th May 2023. Although the announcement didn’t say, Felix is more or less, a replacement for Japheth Katto, who retired from the Board in February 2023, after 9 years of service.

Felix joins Jimmy Mugerwa, another Ugandan Independent Non-Executive Director on the board. 

Uganda is the second biggest unit of EABL, contributing about 20% of the business,  after Kenya which contributes 64%.

Felix is an experienced finance and investments professional, with over 25 years of local and international finance, development finance, real estate and project management experience having worked in various roles in the U.S.A, Europe and Uganda.

He, according to his profile, is “passionate about impact investing and sustainability, and also specialises in advisory work in the distressed assets, real estate and equity investments space”. 

Besides his EABL board role, he is currently the Board Chairman of Uganda Development Bank (UDB) the government of Uganda’s national Development Finance Institution (DFI) that is mandated to accelerate socio-economic development in Uganda through sustainable financial interventions.

He also chairs the board of the Agricultural Business Initiative (aBi)⏤ a social-enterprise that channels development cooperation funding to agribusinesses and agricultural service providers in Uganda with the aim of building a solid and competitive agriculture sector. It was founded by the governments of Denmark and Uganda in 2010. aBi consists of two companies, aBi Development and aBi Finance Ltd.

Felix is also the Board Chairman of Britam Insurance Uganda, the Ugandan unit of the insurance arm of Britam Holdings Plc, one of the leading diversified financial services groups in East Africa and listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Britam Insurance Uganda is one of the 5 largest general insurance companies in the country.  

He also chairs the Investment Committee of the Yield Uganda Investment Fund, one of Uganda’s largest Impact Equity Investment Funds for Agribusiness. 

Felix who runs a private consultancy in equity investments and organisational restructuring, has also held several leadership positions in various entities such as the National Housing and Construction Company (CEO); KfW (German Development Bank) as Financial Sector Advisor and Renaissance Capital, as Executive Director & Head of Investments and Trading. 

He holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Arts in International Studies, also from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a graduate of the Aachen University of Technology (RWTH Aachen) in Germany where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in Engineering with a major in Architecture.