KAMPALA, November 18, 2025 — The former Executive Director of the defunct Uganda Coffee Development Authority [ UCDA ], Dr Emmanuel Iyamulemye has passed on, according to Agriculture minister Frank Mwebaze who disclosed the sad news on X [formerly Twitter] this morning.
“I have learnt this morning with deep sorrow the passing of Dr Emmanuel Iyamulemye, the former ED of UCDA. Dr. Iyamulemye passed away this morning, 18th November 2025. Dr. Iyamulemye was a pillar of Uganda’s coffee sector and played a key leadership role in the design & implementation of Uganda’s coffee road mad that brought about Uganda’s coffee exponential growth,” Tumwebaze wrote.
Under Iyamulemye’s leadership, Tumwebaze said, Uganda strengthened its coffee quality standards, expanded farmer extension support systems, and positioned itself as one of the world’s most competitive coffee origins.
“He fought firmly in international coffee bodies/ foras demanding for the correct classification of African coffees [Uganda’s Robusta & Ethiopia’s Arabica]. He was a bold, firm and intelligent officer. Together with other Colleagues, he worked hard in opening up Uganda’s coffee new markets like China. On behalf of @MAAIF Uganda & coffee stakeholder fraternity and on my own behalf, I extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, colleagues, and friends. May his soul rest in eternal peace,” Tumwebaze posted on X.
As of November 2021, Iyamulemye’s career and work experience stretched back in excess of 15 years. For a period of 2 years, after graduate school, he was the programme director of a programme promoting NERICA rice in Uganda, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
He then spent several years, as the National Programme Coordinator for two development programmes, jointly founded by the European Union and Government of Uganda to uplift living conditions in the Northern Region of Uganda. The Northern Uganda Agricultural Livelihoods Recovery Programme [ALREP], worth €20 million and the Karamoja Livelihoods Programme [KALIP], worth €15 million, ran between 2010 and 2016.
The late Iyamulemye was first appointed as CEO of UCDA in 2016. In 2021, the UCDA Board renewed his contract for another five years, based on the positive outcome of his first term.
UCDA was one of government agencies controversially dissolved by government and had its activities streamlined into the Agriculture ministry.
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