Uganda’s Dr. Florence Grace Adongo, has been chosen to head the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) – the Nile Basin wide regional body that coordinates diplomatic engagements and investments relating to the river Nile and its resources.
Dr. Adongo, who is currently the Head of the Directorate of Water Resources Development in the Ministry of Water and Environment replaces Tanzania’s Eng. Sylvester Matemu, whose two-year term will expire at the end of October 2023.
Dr. Adongo was chosen by the Nile Council of Ministers, the highest decision-making body of NBI, during its sitting in Kampala held on Saturday October 14, 2023.
The choice of the Executive Director of NBI, a regional body headquartered in Entebbe but enjoys diplomatic status, is made on a rotational basis using the alphabetical order of names of countries to determine the next eligible country to field an ED.
Dr. Adongo is the 11th NBI ED of the regional body but also only the second woman to take reigns of the organisation. The first woman NBI ED was Ms. Henrietta Ndombe from DR Congo.
She is also the second Ugandan to head the regional body, after Eng. Patrick Kahangire, who also formerly served as the Head of the same Water Resources and Dev’t Directorate that Dr. Adongo has been heading.
Uganda’s Minister of Water and Environment Sam Cheptoris also assumed the chairmanship of the Ministers Forum NILECOM.
