Court dismisses Jaffery Forex Bureau suit against BoU

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | High Court has dismissed a suit in which Jaffery Forex Bureau sought compensation of Shillings 9.5 billion from Bank of Uganda for illegal withdrawal of its license. Jaffery Forex Bureau ran to the High Court Civil Division in July last year challenging a decision by the Central Bank to revoke their foreign exchange and money remittance licenses in 2016.

Bank of Uganda revoked the license accusing the Forex bureau of flouting regulations that govern the foreign exchange and money remittance business in Uganda. However, through its lawyers of Kinobe and Mutyaba Company Advocates, Jaffery Forex Bureau told court that it has always carried out legitimate business since its inception in 1997 until their license was revoked.

The lawyers led by Faisal Mularila and Alvin Jabbo noted that the decision to revoke the company’s license stemmed from allegations by Bank of Africa against the bureau for alleged involvement in illicit transactions which caused the bank a loss of colossal sums of money.

However, the lawyers told court that their clients were cleared of any wrong doing by police which also recommended to the Central Bank to unfreeze their bank accounts in vain. During the hearing, Bank of Uganda through its Deputy Director for Non-Bank Financial Institutions Andrew Kawere asked court to dismiss the application.

Kawere told court that the accounts of the company were unfrozen following the Central bank’s decision of March 28th, 2019 in which it issued a circular to all commercial banks to open the bureau’s accounts. The Central bank argued that they unfroze the accounts after being satisfied that there were no further claims against Jaffery Forex Bureau.

In his judgment, Justice Musa Ssekaana concurred with the Central Bank and dismissed the application saying it had been filed wrongly. He noted that the company filed the matter in form of an appeal yet the action that was taken by the Central Bank was an administrative decision which should have been resolved through a judicial review process.

Ssekaana also noted that the application was filed out of the stipulated 30 days which is provided for in the Foreign Exchange Act. He said each party will bear its own costs.

******

URN