For over the past year, Dfcu bank has received criticism for being reluctant with data security after leakage of vital information like bank statements of their top bosses to the public.

Accordingly, Dfcu bank has come out and restricted its employees from assessing crucial information especially those in the Information Technology (IT) section as a way of preventing information from being leaked to the public.

At some point, some shareholders threatened to withdraw their shares from the bank after the leakage of crucial bank statements and information to several online publications and the public.
This rubbishes claims by Dfcu Bank when they recently came out saying some online media outlets were spreading malicious information concerning its business operations. The local media have not been telling lies about the Crane Bank-Dfcu saga because they have evidence.

This all began from the controversial purchase of Crane bank in January 2017. Bank of Uganda (BOU) liquidated Crane Bank in 2016 and controversially sold it in January 2017 to Dfcu Bank but the controversial transaction continues to haunt both of the top managers at BoU and Dfcu Bank.
Early this month, Eagle Online reported that a top boss at Dfcu bank has $40 million on his account Bank of Africa as showed by the statement of transaction.
The Bank of Uganda Consumer Protection Guidelines of 2011 compel financial institutions inclusive of commercial banks to safeguard the information of customers’ accounts.

It states; “A financial institution shall not disclose any information about the consumer includes information relating to the consumer’s account and any information about the relationship between the financial services provider and the consumer.

It is mandatory for banks to protect personal and banking-related information, but there are situations in which it can release this information for example when the law compels it to.

Stories Continues after ad

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation (MIF) will launch of the 12th annual Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) on Monday October 29, 2018, when the results and analysis will be shared with the public at mo.ibrahim.foundation.

To mark the launch, Dr Mo Ibrahim will participate in a Facebook Live event to discuss this year’s striking results and the trends measuring Africa’s public governance progress.

Mo will be joined by a panel of African experts representing the continent’s growing next generation voices, Yvonne Apea Mensah from Ghana and Nasi Rwigema from South Africa, who will provide their own opinions of this year’s Index findings. The panel will also respond to questions in real time from online users.

Following the launch, MIF, in partnership with the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), will host a high-level discussion on the findings on November 2, in Pretoria, South Africa.

Global Launch of the 2018 IIAG

The IIAG is an unmatched resource providing the world’s most extensive analysis of the quality of governance in African countries. With the Index, MIF seeks to enable governments, citizens, business, academia, policy makers and analysts to use its findings as a tool to assess accurately the delivery of public goods and services and drive conversations about governance in Africa. As such, the data are made freely available each year via the IIAG Data Portal (iiag.online).

The 2018 IIAG launch will take place online during a 30-minute Facebook Live event with Mo and two African next generation voices, taking the discussion directly to the public to encourage dialogue across social media using the hashtags #IIAG and #AskMIF.

With ten years of data to draw from, the 2018 IIAG is uniquely positioned to measure trends in governance, providing in-depth analysis on how the quality of governance has changed over the past five years (2013-2017) within the context of the last decade (2008-2017), and what has or could be key to Africa’s transformation.

In every iteration, MIF – assisted by the IIAG’s Advisory Council – looks at improving the structure, components and methodology of the IIAG. Due to this annual revision, every year MIF recalculates all scores in the Index.

Previous iterations of the IIAG covered data from 2000 onwards. The 2018 IIAG is for the first time providing comparable governance data for the last decade only, to strengthen the robustness of the findings.

For the first time, an assessment of youth inclusion is part of the IIAG. Through the indicator Promotion of Socio-economic Integration of Youth (provided by Global Integrity), the Index assesses whether there is a government policy/strategy to increase the socio-economic integration of youth.

This year’s IIAG will have the added focus of analysing the data through thematic frameworks and broader themes including: economic opportunity for Africa’s citizens, the demographic dividend, transparency and accountability.

The ten-year time series includes the most recent governance performances, raising the bar in areas such as Health, where countries should benchmark themselves to more current standards.

The IIAG contains analysis across 102 indicators from 35 independent African and global data institutions to cover all 54 African countries in the areas of Safety & Rule of Law, Participation & Human Rights, Sustainable Economic Opportunity and Human Development

Stories Continues after ad

The 13th meeting of the Sectoral Council on Energy is underway in Arusha, Tanzania with the objective to review progress made in the energy sector and consider other issues of regional importance in the areas of new and renewable energy and energy conservation and efficiency, fossil fuels and power.

The five day meeting started with the Session of Senior Officials which will runs from October 15-17, 2018 t, and is to be followed by the Session of Permanent/Principal Secretaries responsible for energy that will take place from October 18, 2018. The meeting will be capped by the Ministerial Session on October 19, 2018.

The Session of Senior Officials is being chaired by Mrs. Cecilia Nakiranda Menya, the Ag. Commissioner Electrical in Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development. Mr. John Muhizi from Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and EAC is the Rapporteur.

Addressing the opening session, the Director of Productive Sectors Mr. Jean Baptiste Havugimana, on behalf of the Deputy Secretary General Productive and Social Sectors, welcomed the delegates to Arusha and said that the meeting could not be convened earlier as was planned in the EAC calendar of activities due tight and clashing schedules in Partner States.

He emphasized the need for EAC Partner States and the Secretariat to go an extra-mile moving forward to implement the Council directive of having two regular meetings of the Sectoral Council per year. This would allow to follow up on matters of the Sector that require urgent policy decision and guidance.

Stories Continues after ad

After a long time, The Cabinet chaired by President Yoweri Museveni, has approved the levying and collection of park user fees on passenger service vehicles (PSVs), which is likely to see transporters increase travel fees.

The new development arrived at on Monday by Cabinet means each taxi will pay Shs840, 000 per annum to be shared by the original/destination local government and KCCA in the ration of 60: 40 respectively.

Taxis operating between two urban authorities are to pay Shs840, 000 which shall be shared in the ration of 60:40 percent for original loading and destination local government respectively.

Commuter taxis in Kampala will pay Shs720, 000 per year while bus operators will pay Shs2.4 million which shall be shared equally among urban authorities on the route charts.

The purpose of the above levies, according to Cabinet, is to harmonise the system between KCCA and other local governments.

It is also meant to stop multiple taxation and daily levies on taxis and provide for a single annual payment as well as to stop the use of agents in the collection of the park use fees from taxi operators.

With the new changes, the public will have to wait to see if taxi and bus operators will increase transport fares. Currently commuter taxis around Kampala charge between Shs500 to Shs3000 per trip depending on the distance from the city centre. Bus operators playing upcountry routes charge between Shs 8000-Shs50, 000 per trip depending on the journey.

Initially Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association (UTODA) was the body responsible for the day to day operation of taxis around Kampala city but these were later kicked out as KCCA resolved to take over taxi operations and management in 2013. According to officials at KCCA, that was done to reinstate order in the business and most importantly bring back the revenue that government was losing during days of UTODA.

“KCCA owns the taxi terminals in Kampala; UTODA had claimed to have had a running contract with KCC before we came in. On further scrutiny there was no documentation to confirm these claims so subsequently, court ordered UTODA out and asked KCCA to take over. They were supposed to be remitting Shs 392 million every month but that money was not coming.

The new taxes come at the time when the price of fuel in the country is rising, with some fuel pumps selling it at over Shs4000.

Meanwhile Cabinet yesterday also directed the Ministry of Finance to release approximately Shs32.8 billion from the Contingency Fund for the emergency resettlement of persons at risk in the Bulambuli government land. The recent Bududa landslides killed over 40 people, leaving several families homeless. Government expects to resettle them in Bulambuli.

Stories Continues after ad