He has over 25 years’ experience in tax practice, with 12 years as a tax auditor with the Uganda Revenue Authority Large Taxpayers Department. Godfrey has previously served as a tax technical adviser and trainer for the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Uganda Revenue Authority, the Tax Appeals Tribunal and the Governments of Rwanda, Liberia, Somaliland and Puntland.
Godfrey is the founder, Executive Director and a senior tax lecturer at the East African School of Taxation. He is also a lecturer of the ACCA Company and Business Law Paper at the Management and Accountancy Training Centre (MAT) in Uganda. He is also a lecturer and head of tax practice at the Law Development Centre.
Godfrey Akena is a founding partner at GODENA Associates and heads the firm’s domestic tax practice. He is an advocate of courts of judicature of the Republic of Uganda and Chartered Certified Accountant of the UK and a Certified Public Accountant of Uganda. Godfrey was the first Ugandan to qualify as both an Advocate of the High Court of Uganda and Certified Public Accountant of Uganda.
Godfrey holds an MBA (in Oil & Gas) from Edinburgh Business School, Herriot Watt University, a Bachelor of Laws (Honors) and Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences (Honors) degrees from Makerere University Kampala. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the law Development Centre, Kampala and is currently pursuing an Advanced Diploma in International Taxation (ADIT) from the Chartered Institute of Taxation (UK).
Godfrey supports project developers in implementing negotiated tax packages and with tax compliance during project implementation. Godfrey offers audit support, conducts tax health checks, and reviews financials and returns for the purposes of tax filings. He was very influential in obtaining tax exemptions for the construction of Onomo Hotel, Guangzhou Dong Song Energy Group & many others.
Godfrey is also the executive director of EAST Tax TV, an online TV specializing in tax literacy and compliance.