Robert Mwesigwa, who was on December 15 appointed by the Cabinet as executive secretary for the National Youth Council, on Wednesday assumed office from his predecessor Alphonse Nkuranga.

During the handover ceremony, the new National Youth Council chief said during his term of office, he will focus on empowering youth as the strength of the country.

"This will be made possible by focusing and building on already existing policies like the National Employment Programme. The government has set up policies that aim at empowering youth and I am here to help the youth to exploit them,” he said.

Rosemary Mbabazi, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Youth and ICT, who officiated at the event, challenged the new executive secretary and his team to work hard and to build on the achievements by the outgoing executive to empower the youth.

"The youth are the strength of the country. A country with an empowered youth emerges stronger,” Mbabazi said.

She said the outgoing team was not replaced because they failed in responsibilities, but rather the need to change and bring fresh blood to drive the youth forward.

Nkuranga, the outgoing executive secretary, said he was proud of what his team had achieved during the four years in office and pledged continued support for the National Youth Council activities whenever needed.

Who is Robert Mwesigwa

Mwesigwa has until recently been serving as the vice-president of Amproc, a consultancy firm in Uganda, and working in private sector in Rwanda.

He is conversant with the organisation and implementation of procurement monitoring, evaluation and training systems, including strategy formulation, policy advice, macro-economic frameworks and institutional capacity building.

Mwesigwa’s extensive experience in high-level negotiations at national, regional and international level has resulted in the implementation of several specially tailored contracts for procurement advisory services for various government institutions worldwide in addition to solicitations for advice on design of a similar procurement advisory agency in other countries.

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