Who is Michael Atingi-Ego, the New BoU Governor?

Dr. Michael Atingi-Ego is the substantive Governor of the Bank of Uganda following three years of absence of either a substantive or Acting Governor, since the death of Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile. This ends years of speculation and uncertainty as to why the president had neither appointed a substantive governor nor an acting one. 

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni appointed Atingi-Ego as Deputy Governor, the Bank of Uganda, for a 5-year term on April 23, 2020, following a successful vetting exercise by the parliament on April 6. He succeeded Dr Louis Kasekende, whose second five-year term had ended about three months earlier. Atingi-Ego, 60, had been the Executive Director of the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI) from September 2018. 

Earlier, he also served as Deputy Director of, the African Department of, the International Monetary Fund, from June 2008. Dr Atingi-Ego Started his career at the BoU in August 1984, advancing to Executive Director of research. He has researched and published on macroeconomic and financial policies and statistics. He holds a Doctorate from Liverpool University attained in 1996, and a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Wales he got in 1991, as well as a Bachelor of Science Economics from Makerere University, Uganda.

He completed his high school at Teso College Aloet, having attended primary school in his home area. While at the IMF, he is said to have contributed to IMF work on increasing effectiveness of capacity development and in modernising monetary policy frameworks in developing countries.

In May 2022, Atingi-Ego was recognized by African Banker Magazine as the "Central Bank Governor of the Year", in recognition of his efforts to tame inflation and maintain foreign exchange stability in Uganda. He has endured challenging times, having been appointed Deputy barely a month after the outbreak of COVID19 and the resulting lockdown of the economy. 

He was vetted by parliament virtually as because of the lockdown.  He took on the rolls of the Governor of the Central Bank following the death of Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile in January 2022. He has been steering the Bank as well as the Monetary Policy Committee, the Board of Directors since then. Pressure on the President to immediately name him Substantive of Acting Governor did not yield fruit, until three years later today.