UBL bids farewell to former board chairperson, Japheth Katto 

Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL), officially bid farewell to Japheth Katto, commonly known as “Chief”, who has been at the helm of the brewer as the board chairperson since 2018.

At the farewell dinner that took at Kampala Serena Hotel, Katto also passed the mantle of UBL board chairman to Jimmy Mugerwa.

Speaking at the function, Mugerwa said, “I had the privilege to sit with you on the East African Breweries and Uganda Breweries boards, and I would like to say that I was amazed by the expertise and the wide counsel you brought. I am confident that whenever you go, you will continue being your best version.”

“I am not Japheth and I cannot promise to do what he has done. But we are an organization of values and people. Since  these will not be going with Japheth, I can only promise that I will try to be a Japheth of sorts,” he added.

The UBL Managing Director Andrew Kilonzo hailed Katto for making his work easier from the time he rejoined the brewery as Managing Director and on behalf of all staff, wished him the very best in his new endeavors.

“It has been an honor serving under your astute leadership and guidance and I have come to rely heavily on your counsel. Thank you for making my job, a little bit easier every day. On behalf of everyone at Uganda Breweries, we wish you the very best on the next chronicles in your chiefdom.” Kilonzo said.

The State Minister of Trade, David Bahati applauded UBL for being among the top three taxpayers in Uganda, contributing hundreds of billions in taxes to government.

He cited at last financial year in which UBL contributed shs430 billion in taxes.

“Uganda Breweries contributes shs430 billion to the treasury. That is equivalent to the budget of the Ministry of ICT, the Ministry of Tourism, and the department of minerals combined. On behalf of the government, I thank you very much.”

He added that the UBL’s corporate social responsibility has extended water to many areas in this country, including Butanda Sub-County in Ndorwa in Kabale District.

At the function, the outgoing board chairperson, Japeth Katto was hailed for helping UBL grow investment in farming communities to a tune of shs52 billion annually from shs40 billion and the company now sources 95% of its raw materials locally from Uganda, making it one of the largest contributors to the Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) initiative.

In the last four years, UBL entered a partnership with the Ministry of Water, and other private players like Stanbic Bank and Total Energies to run the Running Out of Trees (ROOTs) program that has seen close to 17 million trees planted in Uganda.

During his reign as board chairman, Katto oversaw one of the biggest public-private sector partnerships when Uganda Breweries supported  government to scale up vaccination and fasten the economy reopening process.