Akankiza Samson Mpiira

Executive Director / Board Member

Akankiza Samson Mpiira

Mr. Akankiza holds a Master of Business Administration in International Business (Amity University- Uttar Pradesh, India) and Master of Science in Applied Human Nutrition (Makerere University). He received his first degree in Food Science and Technology from Makerere University and also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Project Planning and Management from Uganda Management Institute and a National Diploma in Dairy Science and Technology.

Prior to joining APOP as Executive Director, Mr. Akankiza has served as Executive Director of Dairy Development Authority(DDA), Director Technical Services DDA, Coffee Sustainability Manager of Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Programme Coordinator EU-EAC MARKUP Project, Director of Programs at Agency for Transformation; Senior Program Officer- Food Security and Enterprise Development at Environmental Alert; Business Advisor-Dairy Value Chain Development at Techno Serve Uganda/East African Dairy Development Project; Research Technician – in the Food Technology department at Uganda Industrial Research Institute.

His first job was at Dairy Corporation where he worked as a Dairy Manager for western Uganda collection centers which are some of the biggest producers of milk in Uganda.

Mr. Akankiza has also worked on several short-term technical consultancies in the Ugandan development sector focused on green growth economy, climate change, SMEs capacity building, Quality infrastructure and standards development. He has also supervised Emergency Food Security Assessments in Acholi Sub-region and Refugee Settlements with the UN-World Food Programme. He is a member of the Uganda Action for Nutrition (UGAN) a body of professionals interested in nutrition.

He is also the Uganda Country Representative of the African Circular Economy Network (ACEN), the network for circular economy practitioners in Africa, and Trinomics, one of the key international policy consultants in the field of environment, energy and climate change