By Frank Kamuntu
It’s a moment of jubilation for Uganda’s Chariton Namuwoza, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU) after he was elected as the President of the African Organic Network (AfrONet), a continental body which unites actors in the organic industry in Africa.
Namuwoza was elected during the recently concluded 5th African Organic Conference (AOC) and General Assembly, held in Kigali Rwanda, from 12th – 15th December 2023.
The conference is held every after 3 years. The 4th AOC was held in November 2018 at Sally, Senegal. The 3rd AOC was held in Lagos, Nigeria in October 2015. The 2nd AOC was in Lusaka, Zambia in May 2012 while the 1st AOC was held in Kampala, Uganda in 2009.
As of May 2012, AfrONet was set up and endorsed as the umbrella organization uniting and representing African organic stakeholders throughout the African continent.
Qualities That Ranked Namuwoza The Best Candidate
Many people who know Namuwoza describe him as a transformational leader with a track record in advancing organic production and trade locally, regionally and globally.
According to Mr. Samuel Nyanzi, Chairperson, NOGAMU Board of Directors, who has known him for more than 15 years, “Namuwoza is a gifted and high impact leader with strong skills in advocacy, international marketing and institutional development. His heart for Uganda’s organic sector is unmatched. Over the last 3 years, he has earned recognition for strengthening NOGAMU and repositioning it at the national, regional and international levels”.
In our interview with Namuwoza, we learnt that his passion for organic agriculture could be traced back to his university days as a student leader.
“As President of Makerere University Farmers Association (MUFA), (2002-2003) I once organized a trip for students to a vanilla farm, owned by the late John Nviri in Mukono district and fell in love with the organic farming practices which I observed. I have never looked back,” said Namuwoza.
Namuwoza has since vowed that he is going to use his office as AfrONet President to push for inter-regional organic trade as one of the ways of curbing challenges that have been affecting organic farmers including the lack of market.
”It was a hot battle to get elected as president, surely, it’s a big opportunity for me to serve in this mega office which am going to use with my fellow board members to serve our African people, especially farmers and other organic stakeholders,” said Namuwoza.
Further, Namuwoza will push for increased organic production and productivity, scaling up organic certification through the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) and Internal Control System (ICS), expanding Africa’s global organic market share and ensuring capacity building of the National Organic Movements, among other tasks.
But Who Is Chariton Namuwoza?
Namuwoza is an Agribusiness and International Marketing Executive, Consultant and experienced Board Member. He brings to AfrONet a wealth of nearly 20 years of experience in organic agriculture and agroecology.
Namuwoza is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU, since 2020) and the Chairperson, the Board of Directors for Emmanuel International (Uganda, since 2018).
In 2021, Namuwoza was nominated by the French Embassy in Kampala to the Advisory Board of Stanbic Business Incubator’s Project: Network for Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture and Tourism (NISAT), which was funded by the embassy, to support youth and women entrepreneurs in agroecology and eco-tourism in Uganda (2021-2022).
Chariton holds an MBA from the Maastricht School of Management (MsM/ESAMI, 2015) and a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture (Agricultural Economics) from Makerere University (2003).
Shortly after attaining his first degree in 2003, he joined Taimex (U) Ltd, an export company, where he worked as a project manager until September 2006.
In October 2006, he was hired by NOGAMU as the International Marketing Officer, serving up to July 2014, before being promoted to Chief of Value Chains and Programs. During this period, Chariton traversed more than half of the globe, while coordinating efforts and activities aimed at integrating resource-poor smallholder farmers into export-oriented value chains and creating market linkages between producers and exporters in Uganda and other African countries on the one hand and organic buyers in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East on the other hand.
In December 2015, he resigned from NOGAMU and focused on building Bio Nile (U) Ltd, an agribusiness, marketing and consulting firm, which he had founded earlier in 2014. Since then, Namuwoza has supported other organizations in different capacities and continued to offer valuable managerial, advisory and consulting services including, aBi Development (formerly aBi Trust), as Head of Portfolio Development (2016-2017), Vanilla Exporters Association (VANEX), as Executive Director (2018-2020) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), as a Consultant (2018-2020).
During his tenure as VANEX’s ED and, simultaneously, as CRS’s Consultant, Namuwoza is credited for constructively strengthening VANEX as the voice and leader of the vanilla industry in Uganda and engaging the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) to start to announce national vanilla harvest dates to curb theft, premature harvesting and poor quality of vanilla. Since then, MAAIF has continued to declare harvest dates every season. Moreover, Namuwoza also coordinated VANEX and exporters and worked closely with CRS to contribute towards the design of a five-year project, which was approved and is currently being funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), since 2020. This project is aimed at increasing the production, trade and branding of Uganda’s vanilla for the global market.
As a Consultant, Namuwoza has worked with export-oriented agribusinesses and civil society organizations and executed several assignments funded by Development Partners and United Nations Agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and International Trade Centre (ITC). For instance, with funding from FAO and working closely with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (MTIC), Namuwoza recently developed a marketing strategy for the Parish Development Model (PDM).
He has also supported several export companies and farmers to attain organic certification and access local, regional and global organic markets.
Namuwoza Won’t Be Serving Alone At AfrONet, Below Are The Board Members He Will Work With;
1. Mr. Chariton Namuwoza – President (Uganda)
2. Mr. Chitalu Munshibwe – Vice President (Zambia)
3. Mr. Jude Obi – General Secretary (Nigeria)
4. Ms. Josephine Atangana – Treasurer (Cameroon)
5. Ms. Esther Betts – Member (Kenya)
6. Dr. Juma Mwatima – Member (Tanzania)
7. Dr. Simplice Davo Vodouhe – Member (Benin)
8. Mr. Idhmida Mohammed – Member (Morocco)
9. Dr. Khaoula Mokrani – Member (Tunisia)
10. Mr. Jean Marie Irakabaho – Member (Rwanda)
11. Mr. Clemence Noah – Member (Central Africa).
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