Engineering, then finance, then the infrastructure that lets markets work.
Joseph S.Kitamirike is a Kampala-based capital markets executive. He is the founder of ALTX Africa Group Ltd and Afdex Group Ltd, and has served since 2013 as Chief Executive Officer and Director of ALTX East Africa Ltd, ALTX Clearing Ltd, and ALTX Africa Group Ltd. His career traces a deliberate line from engineering, through finance, into institutional leadership, and finally into building the market infrastructure that underpins how capital moves across the region.
Foundations in engineering
Joseph began his education at Makerere University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. That training in structured, systems-level problem solving would later inform how he approached the design of financial institutions and market platforms, treating a securities exchange, in many ways, as a piece of infrastructure to be engineered rather than simply operated.
A turn toward finance
He moved into finance early in his career as a Research Analyst at General Electric, before pursuing a Master of Business Administration in Finance at the University of Connecticut. That combination, an engineer's grounding and a finance MBA, set the direction for the institutional roles that followed.
Public sector and industrial development
Before moving into institutional leadership, Joseph held roles across Uganda's public and financial sectors: as Commissioner for Industry and Technology in the Ministry of Industry, as Manager for Industrial Estate Development at the Uganda Investment Authority, where he led the land acquisition and development work behind Namanve Industrial Park, and as Senior Banking Officer at Uganda Development Bank, where he introduced ICT, internet, and computer-based project tracking systems.
Institutional leadership
Joseph went on to lead two of Uganda's established institutions as Chief Executive Officer: the National Housing & Construction Company, for over five years, and the Uganda Securities Exchange, for three years up to July 2013. He led the management of both companies through a period of transformation and a return to profitability, distinguishing himself as an expert in real estate finance and development as well as investment management.
Market infrastructure
Since 2013, Joseph has served as Chief Executive Officer and Director of ALTX East Africa Ltd, a multi-asset exchange giving investors direct access to treasury bonds, ETFs, and depository receipts, and of ALTX Clearing Ltd, its custody and settlement company. Both sit under ALTX Africa Group Ltd, the holding company he founded alongside Afdex Group Ltd. It is, in a sense, the throughline of his career made concrete: engineering discipline applied to financial market access.
Policy contributions
In 2024, Joseph wrote a Private Members' Bill to amend Uganda's Capital Markets Authority Act, one of the more substantial pieces of policy work he has taken on outside his executive roles.
Boards and advisory roles
Joseph currently serves on the board of Old Mutual Insurance Co. Ltd, where he chairs the Health Business Committee and sits on the Risk Management Committee, the Finance and Investment Committee, and the Technology and Innovations Committee. He is also a Senior Advisor at the Albright Stonebridge Group, an international political risk consulting firm, where he advised on a cancer research project conducted at Mulago in collaboration with the Frederick Hutchinson Center for Cancer Research.
He has previously served on the boards of Kinyara Sugar Works Ltd., Nile Bank Ltd., Housing Finance Bank Ltd., Jubilee Insurance Co. Ltd., and Uganda Clays Ltd., chaired Imprint Ltd., a strategic management advisory firm, and spent seven years on the Nkumba University Council.