Background
Semei Nyaimzi was born on March 5, 1933, in Acholi, northern Uganda.
Semei Nyaimzi was born on March 5, 1933, in Acholi, northern Uganda.
He was educated at Gulu High School and at Nabumali High School before going to the Sudan in 1952 for three years to do intermediate arts. He became headmaster of Gulu High School (1955-6), then went to Edinburgh University (1956-61) and took an MA in Economics and a diploma in education before returning to Uganda to become a lecturer in Economics at Makerere University from 1961 to 1964.
He was appointed a member of the East African Central Legislative Assembly (the legislative body for East Africa’s Common Services with its headquarters at Arusha in Tanzania). He was also secretary of the East African Economics Society. The biggest challenge in his career came in January 1964 when he joined the Uganda Development Corporation, the state holding corporation with participation in almost every major part of the Uganda economy including industry, hotels and mines.
In October 1964 he took over as chairman of the Corporation. Since then the UDC rapidly expanded its turnover and profits, though it ran into serious cash problems at the end of 1972, as political troubles and the expulsions of the Uganda Asians caused a total collapse in the tourist industry and brought big losses to the Uganda hotels subsidiary.
A university lecturer, whose calm efficiency and administrative ability served him well when he suddenly found himself in charge of the giant Uganda Development Corporation. He holds over 50 directorships and the demands upon him became increasingly large with the deterioration of the Uganda economy.