Festus Akunobera

Festus has steered the growth of the Muhazi Heritage estate from 150 acres in 2013 to 10,000+ acres of nucleus sugar cane estate and private forest by 2023. He is leading the rapid transformation of Muhazi Heritage from a primary agriculture company into a diversified agricultural and sugar refining company.

Festus is an eminent tax lawyer and partner at ABMAK Associates, Advocates & Legal Consultants, a leading law firm in Uganda. In this role, Festus has handled, acted as legal counsel and/or served as tax expert witness in numerous high-value projects, transactions and disputes, including the EACOP, the Uganda Refinery Project, the ATC-Eaton merger, the AB InBev – SAB Miller acquisition, the digital tax stamps program, tax litigation between Heritage Oil & Gas Limited and the Uganda Revenue Authority, the dispute between Tullow Oil and Heritage Oil & Gas in the London Commercial Court, etc.

Festus holds a first-class honors degree in law (with the highest CGPA in the history) of Makerere University Law School. He has won numerous accolades in the legal field, including the Chief Justice’s Prizes for emerging as the best overall student in his class at Makerere University and at the Law Development Centre. He was the recipient of the Hauser Global Scholarship at New York University School of Law for being an outstanding student on the Master of Laws program. An Advocate of the High Court of Uganda and an Attorney & Counselor-at-Law of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Festus is consistently ranked as a leading tax lawyer by Chambers and Partners Global.

Festus was lecturer at Makerere University Law School and East African School of Taxation, as well as visiting lecturer at Duke University (USA) and Vienna University of Economics and Business.

From 2006 to 2010, Festus was a tax consultant in the Uganda and New York offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Festus has served as tax expert for the World Bank and the African Development Bank in Somalia and Liberia and the Government of Uganda through its MDAs, including the Uganda Revenue Authority, the Tax Appeals Tribunal and the Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development.