Robert Ongodia named Opportunity Bank Uganda CEO

Robert Ongodia is the new chief executive officer of Opportunity Bank Uganda, replacing Emmanuel Tineyi Mawocha, who is now the bank's regional director for Africa.

A spokesperson for the bank told me on a call that Ongodia is yet to assume the office at the 25-year-old financial institution.

Before scoring this high-profile gig, Ongodia was the non-executive director of UGAFODE Microfinance Limited (November 2015-August 2020) and a senior director of global investments at Accion (December 2014-August 2020), his LinkedIn profile shows.

A holder of a master’s degree in public administration (economic policy management) from Columbia University of New York and a bachelor of science in economics from Makerere University, Ongodia has also worked with Musoni Kenya Ltd. as a non-executive director, Microvest Capital Management (investment manager), FINCA Microfinance Bank Tanzania (chief operating officer, or COO) and FINCA Uganda (COO).

He has also lectured international economics at Makerere University, served Bank of Uganda as a 'Banks Examiner', worked at the World Bank as a ‘short-term consultant’ and headed the loans department at Centenary Bank (1996-1999).

His predecessor, Mawocha, had been in that role since 2016 and his tenure has seen the bank's assets grow from Shs75 billion in 2016 to Shs165billion.

The bank is owned by five shareholders, namely MyBucks (49%), Opportunity Transformational (39%), Faulu Trust (7.14), Opportunity International Canada (6.06) ad Food for the Hungry Organisation (1.01).