Barclays Bank has apologized to former Executive Director in Charge of Supervision at Central Bank Justine Bagyenda over the leaked details of her fat accounts she holds at the bank.
Barclays is the second bank to apologise to Ms Bagyenda after Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) came out first and issued the apology regarding similar issue.
In a press release, Barclays says in line with Financial Institution’s Act, their fiduciary responsibilities and internal company polices is protecting their customer’s personal data is the utmost priority for them as a bank and therefore, internal disciplinary actions are being undertaken to address the leaks.
“The bank regrets the unlawful act leading to disclosure of our said customer’s information in the media and sincerely apologies to Ms Justine Bagyenda for the inconvenience this regrettable incident may have caused” reads the press released.

It further adds “Following recent media reports which started on March 1, 2018, surrounding the handling of information relating to the account of Ms Justine Bagyenda, a customer of the bank, we would like to assure our customers and the general public that we take the matter of customer confidentiality very seriously” reads the statement.
The bank further said that whereas, there are alleged cases of customer information breach, Barclays has in place internal mechanism to ensure that they are thoroughly investigated and conclusively dealt with.
“Accordingly, disciplinary action is being taken against employees responsible for unauthorized access to her accounts in line with the law and our polices”
The leadked bank documents show that Ms Bagyenda in the last six years, her account balance was Shs20 billion.
Last three weeks, Eagle Online published a series of stories detailing the depths of Ms Bagyenda’s bank accounts she has with the bank, including one about how she has a whopping Shs20b sitting on two different accounts.
The stories have prompted DTB and Barclays to investigate the source of information in the bank, and the investigation, reportedly led them to one of their staff who, the Bank leadership claims, was ‘compromised’ and actively participated in leaking account details of their client.
Bagyenda, whose contract at BoU was supposed to end June 2018, went on annual leave on January 22, but in a reshuffle announced by BoU governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, she was retired. In her place Prof. Mutebile appointed Dr Tumubweine Twinemanzi the new Director in charge of Supervision.

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Kampala’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 6.7 percent is being driven by its manufacturing and other tradable goods and services sector, according to a World Bank report released recently in Kampala.

According to the report titled: ‘Role of City Governments in Economic Development of Greater Kampala’, the contribution of manufacturing representing a growth of 31.1%, was greater than its share of 27.7 of GDP in 2008, indicating an expansion of the sector.

The report indicates that tradable goods and services drove two thirds of GDP growth, indicating that Kampala is on the way to transitioning from a ‘market town’ producing local services towards being a ‘production center’ which produces tradable goods and services.

 “This pattern was similar for transportation, storage and ICT, which drove 26.2% of growth, off a base of only 11% of GDP, indicating a rapid expansion of the wholesale trading sector,” the report states in part.

On the other hand, non-tradable services contracted as a share of GDP, indicating a decreasing reliance on local demand. Consumer services, for instance, which includes mostly retail trade, comprised 39.4% of GDP in 2008 fell to 29.5% of growth between 2008 and 2012.

Nonetheless, the report notes that Kampala’s structural transformation is still at an early stage when compared to other African cities for manufacturing, tradable services, non-tradable services and agriculture. It says Kampala has the third lowest share of output in tradable goods, agriculture, manufacturing or tradable services.

 “It is thus at the beginning of its transition away from a “market town,” to a “production center with a higher share of tradable, high value-added output,” it says. According to the report, the only two cities below it in structural transformation, Addis Ababa and Kigali, have much lower per capita income.

The report says 56% of the firms are primarily engaged in trading and services within which the most common occupation is shopkeeper or street vendor. The next sector, hotels, bars and restaurants, comprises 26%. The report says manufacturing, which includes primarily tailoring and woodwork, comprises just 13%.

‘Not surprising for an urban area, agriculture comprises only 4% of firms,’ it adds.

Employment

The report says job creation in formal employment is not keeping pace with Kampala’s growing population. Current evidence, according to the report, indicates that Kampala’s unemployment is currently 10%, which while concerning, is not considered high relative to comparator cities in East Africa.

According to the report, underemployment and informality is the primary concern for the Greater Kampala, and that underemployment estimated at 23% and informal firms account for 57% of the city’s employment. The majority of Kampala’s employment is in micro or small firms. It says employment growth has dramatically increased in micro firms and reduced in large and medium firms. In particular, it says large firms in the tradable sector have lost five thousand jobs during 2001-2011 in Greater Kampala (four times more than that in the non-tradable sector).

‘Kampala will not be able to keep pace with its population growth and satisfy the expectations of its population for better quality jobs unless it is able to create more formal jobs in sectors which will encourage further industrialization and economies of scale,’ it warns.

Uganda has the third fastest growing population in Africa, with the population doubling around every twenty years, with young people joining the workforce at a rate of 4 million people per year, which is forecasted to increase to over 8 million by 2040.

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