New move expected to boost country’s insurance penetration Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | For a long time, buying insurance policies in Uganda through commercial banks, also known as bancassurance, remained unthinkable. Policies were purchased directly from insurers’ branches or through brokers, a situation that had been blamed for a slowdown …
Read More »Bad outlook for Ugandan banks
Low private sector lending, decline in interest rates to take toll on the bank’s profitability for the year ending Dec 2017 Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Uganda’s commercial banks seem to be laying down new strategies as the industry anticipates to record subdued earnings in 2016 owed to low private …
Read More »BAD ECONOMY: Analyst sees more banks shutting branches, cutting jobs
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Commercial banks in Uganda are in bad mood after recording bad performance in the first half of 2017. According to industrial data, profits dropped 4% year-on-year as at June 2017 compared to 18% growth in the same period last year. Industry client loans and advances …
Read More »2017: DFCU Bank posts Sh114 bn net profit in first 6 months
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | dfcu Bank has posted Shs 114 bn for the first half of this year up from Shs 23bn in the same period last year, according to its interim consolidated financial results released August 15, 2017. According to a notice issued on Tuesday, top management attributed …
Read More »DFCU Bank sued for failure to payoff Crane Bank debts
Kampala, Uganda | GODFREY SSALI | The Commercial Court has summoned DFCU bank to file a defence within 15 days explaining why it has refused to pay debts that were incurred by the now closed Crane Bank. This follows a suit filed by an advertising company Premier Advertsing and media Ltd …
Read More »Fears BOU could fail to hit private sector credit target for last quarter
Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Bank of Uganda is pessimistic about growth in private sector credit for the last quarter of this financial year. This is the latest bad news suggesting the country is yet to achieve desired economic growth of over 7%. “We are not likely to achieve …
Read More »UK banks ‘handled’ $740 mn in laundered Russian money
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Several British banks processed nearly $740 million in a multi-billion dollar Russian money-laundering scam, The Guardian newspaper said on Monday. According to documents obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, at least $20 billion was moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014 …
Read More »African Dev Bank promises to bring down electricity prices
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has assured President Yoweri Museveni that they are planning several interventions that will bring down the electricity tariffs in Uganda. AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina gave the assurances after Museveni expressed concern over the high cost of electricity, which he says is not coming down until an AfDB bank …
Read More »Rethinking the banking industry
THE LAST WORD: By Andrew M. Mwenda Lesson for Central Bank from the experience of the takeover of Crane Bank This week, the government injected Shs 200 billion into Crane Bank to bolster its liquidity position. This is only 40% of the Shs 500 billion needed to bring the bank …
Read More »African Development Bank okays $600 million loan for Nigeria
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | The African Development Bank has approved the first installment of a $1 billion loan to Nigeria to help President Muhammadu Buhari combat a “crisis situation”. In a Wednesday press release, the AfDB said that the $600 million loan was the “first tranche of a US …
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