Martin Aliker

Martin Jerome Okec Aliker is a Ugandan dental surgeon, businessman, entrepreneur and community leader. He is a senior adviser to the President of Uganda^[1] and he sits or used to sit on the Board of Directors of nearly 40 Ugandan companies. He is the current Chancellor of Victoria University Uganda, a private institution.^[2] From 2004 until 2014, he served as the founding Chancellor of Gulu University, a public university. He was succeeded in that position by Professor Frederick Kayanja.^[3]

Background and education

Martin Aliker was born in Gulu District on 21 October 1928 to Rwot Lacito Okech and Julaina Auma, a daughter of the late Musa Ali, the first ordained Anglican priest in Acholi. He attended Gulu High School for his primary education, before transferring to Kings College Budo for his O-Level studies. In 1948, he was admitted to Makerere University, the oldest public university in East Africa. Before he could complete his studies at Makerere, he won a scholarship to Northwestern University, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where he studied Political Science, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Following that, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study dental surgery also at Northwestern, graduating with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS). Later, he studied for and was awarded the title of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS), awarded by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.^[4]

Lifestyle

After his doctorate studies in the United States, Martin Aliker returned to Uganda and took up employment as a government dental surgeon. At first he rented a house on a street known as "Nyonyi Gardens" on the south-facing slopes of Kololo Hill, one of the most prestigious residential areas of Kampala, Uganda's capital city. Later, he left the civil service and set up the first private dental practice in Uganda, owned by an African.

In 1963, the year following Uganda's Independence from the United Kingdom, he bought a plot of land at "2 Hill Lane", higher up on Kololo Hill and built a home there. In 1971, when Idi Amin captured power in a coup d'état, the residence shared the back wall with Martin Aliker's house. Amin's security people ordered him to move away from his home, because he was deemed a "security risk" to Idi Amin.

In 1971, he bought another piece of land at "2 Summit View", and built a new home for £35,000 then (2014 value approx. £1,600,000) completing the construction in 1972. He lived there until late 1972, when he fled to Nairobi, Kenya, due to the then deteriorating security situation in Uganda. While in Nairobi, he set up a lucrative dental practice, staying there until 1998, when he came back to Uganda. On his return, he was able to repossess his home. He hired Roko Construction Company to gut the home and reconstruct it for approx.US$150,000.^[5]

Investments

Starting from way back in the 1960s, Martin Aliker began buying shares in blue chip companies, including Uganda Commercial Bank and National Insurance Company. He continued on that buying trajectory when the Uganda Securities Exchange opened in 1997, and after he returned from exile in 1998. As of October 2014 , Martin Aliker is a shareholder in the following publicly traded Ugandan companies: (a) Stanbic Bank Uganda (b) Uganda Clays Limited (c) Nation Media Group (d) National Insurance Corporation (e) East African Breweries (starting back when it was "Uganda Breweries Limited"), among others. He sits on the boards of many of these companies and is the current Chairman of Uganda Clays Limited.^[6]

Other responsibilities

In addition to his aforementioned responsibilities, he also sits on the "Actis East African Advisory Board", launched by Actis, the private equity firm affiliated with the Commonwealth Development Corporation.^[7] In July 2014, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees of "Makerere University Endowment Fund".^[8]

See also

• List of wealthiest people in Uganda
• Economy of Uganda

References

External links

• Makerere University Honours Martin Aliker