Senior Counsel Francis Gimara has been appointed the Non-Executive Director on the dfcu Board of Directors following a successful majority vote as an approval from shareholders of dfcu Bank, the flagship business of dfcu Limited, at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) that was held on Thursday, 11th July, 2024. 

Mr Gimara was appointed to fill a casual vacancy on the Board, in accordance with Article 76 of the Company’s Articles of Association, after the resignation of Dr. Christine Akello from the Board in July 2023. 

The Senior Counsel was tapped after the dfcu Board Nominations and Governance Committee sought out several candidates who would bring on a valuable skills set to the Board of Directors with a number of qualified candidates interviewed for the position. 

Mr Gimara is a seasoned legal practitioner of the Courts of Judicature in Uganda and the East African Court of Justice with over 20 years of experience. 

He is the Head of Africa Law Practice (ALP) East Africa, a regional law firm and also a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. 

He holds an LLM from Cambridge University (UK), a Masters in Dispute Resolution (MDR) from Pepperdine University (US), a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from Herriot Watt University, a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, from the Law Development Centre Kampala, Uganda. 

Mr Gimara specialises in Alternative Dispute Resolution and provides strategic legal advisory services to governments and the private sector. He has considerable expertise in matters related to doing business in Africa and has broad experience in areas ranging from corporate advisory, international trade law, corporate governance and strategic dispute resolution. 

He’s President Emeritus of the Uganda Law Society from 2016 to 2018, and currently Chairperson of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority Appeals Tribunal of the Republic of Uganda.