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Standard Chartered bank registers growth in assets and customer deposits amidst #Covid-19 pandemic

By
Geoffery Serugo
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Standard Chartered Bank Speke Road.

Standard Chartered Bank has announced Shs3.831 billion total assets growth and Shs 2.712 billion customer deposits growth in 2020.

According to the report, the bank registered Shs429.9 billion in total income, a decrease of 6.8 per cent and Shs72.8 billion in net profits before tax was, a decrease of 41.6 per cent.

The report indicates that customer usage of digital platforms grew significantly in 2020 with digital transactions and mobile wallet transfers registering growth of 34  per cent and 94 per cent respectively. The Bank’s clients continued accessing up to 70 common services via our SC mobile App with 64 per cent of these being processed straight through with no human intervention.

Wealth segment recorded 44 per cent income growth while assets under wealth management grew by 86 per cent to Shs297 billion. The bank also recorded growth in client base with new client numbers moving up six times.

Mr Albert Saltson the Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered said the performance remained buoyant in the face of the extraordinary challenges posed by the pandemic and associated economic contraction.

“We made good progress on our strategic initiatives and our financial performance was overall very resilient. As we look to the future, I am fully confident that the foundations we have built will help us deliver our strategic priorities and further strengthen our client proposition and performance. In 2020, we continued to take significant steps to reshape our business and focused on supporting our employees, communities and clients leveraging our digital channels, having deep engagements with our affluent clients, tight risk management and cost control, improving our productivity and continued to leverage our global network to support our clients.” he said

The Chief Financial Officer Kelvin Musana said the 2020 financial performance is a reflection of our great resilience in the midst of the effects of the pandemic and related economic slowdown.

“With significant investments in technology, prudent cost and risk controls as well as robust systems, we remain optimistic, solid, and competitive and are on the right track. Although we still have some way to go in an environment that is still uncertain, we expect to come out of 2021 with better momentum.” He said

The Head, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional banking Godfrey Ssebaana said the bank’s  Corporate and Institutional Banking business in 2020 continued to build capacity to serve the Global subsidiaries, institutional service providers as well offer banking and financing solutions to institutional and corporate clients’ employees.

“In 2020 we participated in financing key development programs to promote import substitution such as industrial hubs and parks and we provided sovereign solutions to finance key projects particularly for the infrastructure, water and energy sectors. We also recorded an increase in the adoption of our digital channels with close to 90 per cent of our clients shifting their transactions to our world class straight2Bank digital platform and our Corporate Finance proposition recorded growth as we successfully delivered a wide range of solutions to our clients along with several complex, event-based transactions.”

Regina Mukiri, Head, Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing noted that  2020 was a challenging year for everyone and they committed to go beyond banking to stand with their employees, clients and community to fight the devastating impact of #Covid 19.

“To ease the financial impact of the pandemic on our clients, we unveiled various initiatives like; Repayment holidays, fee waivers, loan extensions and promoted our digital channels especially the SC Mobile App for individual clients and the Straight2Bank platform for Corporates and SMEs to enable easy access and seamless transactions. During this period, our clients also accessed $1 billion availed globally to help finance production of goods and services to help in the fight against #Covid-19.”

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Minister Kabatsi threatens to suspend Pereza Ahabwe from Uganda Airline board

By
Geoffery Serugo
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Minister Joy Kabatsi addressing the press at the Media Centre in Kampala at a past event.

The Minister of State for Transport Joy Kabatsi has threatened to suspend the Chairman of Board of Directors for Uganda airlines Pereza Godfrey Ahabwe for failure to take action against board members.

According to the Minister, Mr. Ahabwe and board members declined to have a meeting with her to streamline the operations of the Airline.

“Following your refusal to attend the meeting together with your board members, I have found it necessary to communicate to you the issues that were to be discussed during the aborted meeting,” Kabatsi said

In a letter to the Mr. Ahabwe and board members, the Kabatsi said that they were scheduled to discuss the role of board in the procurement of goods and services for airliner, recruitment of workers, lack of capacity by the various heads of departments to develop manual that are satisfactory to Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), Why the certifying of Bombardier jets has taken long?

The minister also raised concern on why the airline is paying grounds rent and storage charges yet it procured its equipment, the need to set up its Aircraft Maintenance Organisation and the arrangements in place to set it up and other issues.

“You are asked to give me a comprehensive report on all issues highlighted above by 7th May 2021. In case of failure to respond as requested, I will have no other option but to request all stakeholders to suspend you as the chairman of the board of directors,” the minister said.

Eagle Online has learnt that, yesterday Mr. Ahabwe suspended a number of board members in reference to a decision they took to shun their meeting with the minister. The meeting was scheduled on April 20, 2021.

In a brief statement Ahabwe said; “The board of directors of Uganda Airlines wishes to inform our esteemed clients and the general public that some members of the management team have taken leave and during their absence the airline roles will be performed by the organisation in line with human resource policies,”

Eagle Online has separately learnt that Minister Kabatsi is currently embroiled in a fight with her colleagues at the ministry over supervisory roles on some of the entities which Transport and Works ministry supervises.

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How Uganda will benefit from Dubai Expo 2021

By
Guest Writer
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Ambassador Henry Mayega

EXPO 2021 Dubai, UAE, the largest international exhibition event ever to be staged in the Arab world will welcome 190 participating countries of which Uganda is one. An estimated 25 million global visitors will attend the fair from October 2021 – March 2022. Thus, UAE’s Dubai will host the world for 173 days each brimming with new commercial opportunities at the elaborately constructed Dubai Exhibition Centre; that will present boundless opportunities for Uganda to allure trade, tourists and FDI inflows since the entire world will be assembled in one place making it undemanding for us to elucidate the country’s potential at a token cost.

That first ever such event in the region was supposed to take place last year but it stalled due to the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic. Although the event will start late this year, the authorities here have not re-baptised it for 2021 Expo Dubai; it has retained its original tag of 2020 Expo Dubai for good reasons. Ugandans need to know that the UAE is the commercial hub of the gulf states; it has a PCY of $43,103 (Wikipedia, 2020), a population of 9.89 m people (2020) with a GDP of $421.1 billion (2019) and has the second largest economy in the Arab world after Saudi Arabia. A third of the UAE’s GDP is from oil revenues. Its GDP per sector is as follows: industry – 49.8 percent, services – 49.2 percent and agriculture -0.9 percent. Labour force by occupation plays out as follows: services – 78 percent, industry – 15 percent and agriculture – 7 percent.

Worth noting is that the UAE hosts an estimated 100,000 Ugandans (most of whom live in Dubai hence the urgent need to establish a consulate there to offer them the ever-burgeoning consular services) an integral part of our esteemed global diaspora rated highly in Uganda’s Vision 2040 and development plans for mobilization as elemental drivers of our country’s economic development.  The UAE-based Ugandans are said to, yearly; remit a whopping $200m back home. Relatedly, the UAE is said to import goods worth $1.1bn from Uganda mostly gold and agricultural goods. With that potential for augmented economic benefits to Uganda, it is worth evaluating them hereunder:

Firstly, Uganda’s participation in the expo would, with robust elucidation: augment both trade and tourism through technical and strategic cooperation, aid technological transfer as well as burgeon FDIs inflow into the country. Why? Because the Yoweri Museveni administration through its MDAs will have an occasion to delineate to the international community about Uganda’s glowing investment environment and opportunities with concrete evidence. The expo side meetings, too, will provide a platform to hammer out south-south cooperation pacts that will have a potential to ameliorate the effects of the sanctioning world against us.

Secondly, Uganda’s participation in the expo would have the potential to increase the country’s political visibility, improve its public diplomacy and image not only in the Arab world but also amongst the wider participating international community; Uganda’s national day, for instance, will be the first to be celebrated in the Dubai exquisite exhibition area. The UAE has underwritten the construction of our country’s pavilion in the exhibition area where both the national day and show-casing of Uganda’s products and innovations will be held. The national day celebrations will have a potential to increase the country’s international stature by leaps and bounds because for a moment we shall be the centre of focus. As argued earlier, Dubai and by extension the UAE constitute the gateway to both the North and the South because it is, in particular, situated strategically in the middle of major global economic routes into which Uganda can tap.

Thirdly, Uganda’s economic and commercial diplomacy will be boosted given the unique opportunities the expo will present. Exhibiting firms and individuals from Uganda have been given the unique opportunity of bringing their products and innovations to the exhibition centre; the UAE has provided a container for shipping them by May 2, 2021. The Yoweri Museveni administration’s emphasis on ECD activities will get a new lease of life for review and fine-tuning in order to align with the new and emerging opportunities for purposes of leap forward.

Correspondingly, the world’s youngest carrier, Uganda Airline, is soon making its maiden flight, if all goes according to plan, to Dubai and there is a lot of enthusiasm here in the UAE for Uganda’s cargo that most especially includes agricultural products and mineral beatified products like gold; that, in essence, requires urgent examination by the relevant MDAs in order to plan accordingly. Such flights will possibly sort the enduring pickle and quandary of connectivity by the national carrier teaming up with Emirates, Etihad and Fly Dubai to jointly venture into the East African region to purposefully stimulate trade and commerce between the Middle East and the Interlacustrine regions.

Fourthly, the expo presents an opportunity to mobilize Uganda’s diaspora in the UAE in particular and the entire middle east in general to vigorously participate in the country’s development; the 100,000 Uganda nationals spread out in the UAE is a good starting point in this endeavour and the expo, it is planned, will decipher to that constituency the conducive business environment and umpteen investment opportunities available. There are already ongoing discussions between the mission and the UAE diaspora about how best to involve the later in the planning, implementation and aftermath auditing of expo activities.

Fifthly, there is a real possibility of increasing opportunities for technological transfer from the UAE, the Middle East and elsewhere to Uganda. Uganda is a member state of International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi. Uganda held its rotational chair until January 2021.

Ambassador Henry Mayega

Deputy Head of Mission

Uganda Embassy

Abu Dhabi, UAE

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Uganda Breweries registers over 150 bar owners to ‘Raising The Bar Initiative’

By
Our Reporter
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Uganda Breweries registers over 150 bar owners to 'Raising The Bar Initiative'

Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) has registered over 150 bar owners from Kampala and Mukono to the ‘Raising The Bar’ initiative over the weekend.

The initiative, which was unveiled in March this year, is meant to equip businesses in the entertainment and hospitality sectors with international best practices which will keep their staff and consumers safe when government restrictions are lifted.

Raising the Bar is adapted from the Diageo $100 Million Raising the Bar Program that seeks to facilitate Diageo affiliates globally to support their local business partners and boost their capacity to resume operations under the respective national guidelines. In Uganda, this program is being facilitated under UBL’s flagship Brand of Bell Lager which will inject a $1 Million fund towards the logistical and physical requirements of the program.

While addressing members of the Legit Bar, Entertainment and Restaurant Owners Association (LeBRA) at Casablanca Bar and Restaurant in Kampala, Ben Mbuvi, UBL’s Sales Director, said, “Thirteen months is a long time to be out of business, and we understand that it is very painful. We want to promise you that we will walk down this road with you to the end. It’s going to be painful, but you have a caring partner in UBL.”

In addition to the Raising The Bar initiative, he added that UBL understood that working capital challenges are being faced by businesses under this sector after such a long period of closure. He said the brewery had engaged several banks to provide funds at the lowest interest rates for these businesses to buy stock without collateral.

The initiative is being conducted in partnership with the Infectious Diseases Institute of Makerere University, which among other things, will drive awareness training for the personnel in bars, recreational facilities and similar establishments. They will also provide the requisite knowledge, social distancing and enhanced hygiene measures that are necessary to the prevention of COVID-19 transmission in establishments that carry Uganda Breweries Products.

Walter Arinaitwe, Deputy Director of Training at the Infectious Diseases Institute remarked, “We are partnering with UBL in this program because we have handled the other sectors in the economy and we believe that we should be able to demonstrate that reopening this sector is possible as well.”

Speaking at the end of the ceremony, Patrick Musinguzi, the Secretary-General of LeBra, encouraged more bar owners to sign up for the capacity building initiative, adding that the process is very seamless and will stand to benefit all the bar establishments that participate.

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Bill and Melinda Gates divorce after 27 years of marriage

By
Agencies
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Bill Gates and Melinda Gates

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates have announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage, saying “we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple”.

“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the pair tweeted.

They first met in the 1980s when Melinda joined Bill’s Microsoft firm.

The billionaire couple have three children and jointly run the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The organisation has spent billions fighting causes such as infectious diseases and encouraging vaccinations in children.

Bill Gates is the fourth wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes, and is worth $124bn (£89bn).

He made his money through the firm he co-founded in the 1970s, Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company.

The pair both posted the statement announcing their divorce on Twitter.

“Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives,” it read.

“We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives.

“We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”

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Rugby 7s coach names team for Solidarity Camp in South Africa

By
Our Reporter
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Uganda rugby 7s team in training

The Uganda 7s coach, Tolbert Onyango has named the 7s team going for the Solidarity Camp in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Of the 17 who have been in the training camp, 15 have been selected.  The team will travel on Thursday 6th May and will come back on 16th May 2021.

The Solidarity camp is organised by Rugby Afrique to prepare the teams for the Tokyo Olympics and those that haven’t yet qualified to prepare for the repercharge in Monaco. Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Uganda are the countries taking part in this solidarity camp.

Uganda and Zimbabwe are the only countries of the four that haven’t qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. This camp will grant the two teams playing time as they prepare for the reperchage tournament that will take place in June.

Team: Jame Odongo, Adrian Kasito, Kelvin Balagadde, Levis Ocen, Solomon Okia, Michael Wokorach, Aaron Ofoywroth, Joseph Aredo, Desire Aredo, Philip Wokorach, Timothy Kisiga, Ian Munyani, Isaac Massanganzira, Nobert Okeny and Byron Oketayot.

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Law Reform Committee makes proposals on bail process

By
Our Reporter
-
Law Reform Committee makes proposals on bail process

Last week, Judiciary’s Law Reform Committee, one of the key interventions in implementing recommendations of the 2017 Case Backlog Reduction Report, met to discuss the proposed presentation of the Reviewed Bail Guidelines.

The 19-member committee, which is chaired by the Principal Judge, Dr Flavian Zeija, proposed that Registrars and Magistrates submit returns to the Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Judiciary every month, giving details of bail refund claims as well as amounts forfeited to the State.

The Committee emphasized that Court Orders must be extracted to accompany bail refund claims and reflect forfeitures to the State.

The Principal Judge noted that the Guidelines were meant to complement the existing legal provisions on Bail.

The Under Secretary, Ms Maureen Kasande, noted that the new bail refund form would include e-payments to accused persons. Previously, payments could only be effected to the bank accounts of the claimants.

The other aspects discussed at the meeting were updates on the procurement of consultancy services on Child-Friendly Procedures. A budget was circulated to members on the proposed training on Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules, 2019.

The Committee was constituted by the Chief Justice, Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo, on November 20, 2020. In its six months of existence, the Committee has proposed reforms in seven procedures.

These include; Amicus Curiae, Practice Direction on the Establishment of the Infrastructure and Environment Division and Review of Court Fees. The other areas of reform are the Amendment of Executions and Bailiffs Rules, State Briefs, Bail Guidelines and Enhancement of Pecuniary Jurisdiction of Magistrates.

This will see the enhancement of pecuniary jurisdiction of Chief Magistrates from Shs50 million to Shs200 million and Magistrates Grade One from Shs20m to Shs100 million.

The Committee is also in the process of reviewing the Court of Appeal Rules and Child-Friendly Procedures.

The other areas of reform that the Committee considers are the Reorganization of Magisterial areas and Rules on Vexatious Litigation.

According to Office Instruction 1 of 2020 that establishes it, the Committee is mandated with making proposals for a review of Court Rules of Procedure with the overall objective of Expediting the disposal of cases, ensuring adequate preparation of cases before trial, reducing the delay of cases and maximizing judicial time and re-engineering business processes for civil and criminal justice.

The other areas are improving access to justice for unrepresented litigants, simplifying the procedures and practices, improving and streamlining case management and giving judicial officers greater powers to dispose of cases and administer substantive justice expeditiously.

The Committee is set to organise a consultative workshop to validate the proposals before issuing the Rules Committee’s Rules.

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St Mary’s Stadium approved to host Uganda’s World Cup Qualifiers

By
Our Reporter
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st mary's stadium kitende

Confederation of African Football-CAF has finally approved St. Mary’s Stadium Kitende, the home of Vipers Sports Club, to host the 2022 World Cup qualifier games for the Uganda Cranes ending speculations of hosting games in neighbouring countries.

Earlier inspection by FIFA had indicated that St. Mary’s Stadium had no floodlights and no proper roads to the stadium and had urged to be worked upon but this has been ditched, allowing Uganda Cranes to host their home games at home.

“Waking up to the news that St Mary’s Stadium has been approved by CAF to host World Cup Games. This is a wonderful achievement. It was going to be an embarrassment to the Nation for Cranes to host games away. Government can now help work on the access road to the stadia,” the head of communications at Vipers, Abdu Wasike said.

St.Mary’s Kitende also hosted two of Uganda Cranes’ Afcon 2021 qualifier games.

FIFA in March 2020 barred Namboole from hosting the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers after inspection of the facility. They cited that the toilet facilities, the playing ground, the pavilion and the dressing rooms all were substandard.

The Sports Minister, Hamson Obua said that they need about 96 billion shillings to renovate Namboole stadium.

Uganda is in group E for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers alongside neighbours Kenya and Rwanda, and West African giant Mali.

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Parliament approves tax on export of leaf tobacco

By
Our Reporter
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Tobacco

Ugandan traders dealing in exportation of unprocessed tobacco leaf will now be required to pay a tax of about shs3,000 per kilogramme order to boost the currently undervalued business.

This tax comes with the passing of the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2021 on Monday, 03 May 2021.

The Vice Chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on Finance, Planning and Economic Development, hon Jane Avur Pacuto said that since 2015, firms have been exporting unprocessed tobacco leaf without paying an export levy causing financial loss to government.

Pacuto added that traders were also registering losses following a decline in the value of unprocessed tobacco leaf on the world market.

She told Parliament that the new tax is expected to motivate traders to embrace exportation of processed tobacco which she said is of a higher value internationally.

“This tax will enhance value addition where a kilogramme of processed tobacco leaf costs almost five times that of unprocessed tobacco,” said Pacuto adding that, ‘this will in turn create employment for Ugandans and is expected to generate revenue of shs20 billion’.

Kalungu West MP, Hon Joseph Ssewungu wondered if the new tax will not discourage potential investors in the tobacco business.

“Now that major tobacco firms such as British American Tobacco have taken their business from Ugandan to Kenya, won’t this new tax discourage more investors?” asked Ssewungu.

The new law stipulates what constitutes unprocessed tobacco which was previously ambiguous. As a result the new import tax excludes cutrag, threshed stem, threshed strips, threshed loose leaves or threshed lamina.

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Police raids stores dealing in suspected stolen Umeme items

By
Our Reporter
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Suspected stolen Umeme items

The Directorate of Crime Intelligence in close coordination with the Territorial Units in Kiboga and Old Kampala, conducted a well-coordinated raid on major metal business locations in Kayiwa Zone that was dealing in suspected stolen electric gadgets and transmission wires from electric utilities and poles.

According to the Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga, this followed complaints of vandalism and sabotage on the transmission lines of electricity in Kiboga District. “Our task teams established that criminals climbed the electricity transmission lines and cut the transmission lines, stole surge arrests, polymeric insulators, reel insulators and other electric gadgets, thus disrupting supply of electricity in Kiboga,” he said.

“Our intelligence teams tracked down the suspects up to Kayiwa zone in Rubaga and recovered an assortment of electric gadgets, metals and cable wires, worth Ugx3bn. Among those exhibited are 1460 pieces of 50mm bi-metal clamps, 3480 pieces of reel insulators, 840 pieces of polymeric insulators, 5646 pieces of 60mm PG clamps, 510 surge arresters among others.  Over 80 different categories of exhibits were recovered,” Enanga said.

So far 7 suspects have been arrested following the recovery of the vandalised electric metals and cable wires, at 10 stores in Kayiwa zone, Rubaga.  These include; Semaganda Ronald, Matovu Abdul, Musoke Lawrence, Obadiah Matovu, Turyatemba Ashraf, Niwamanya Michael and MuJiri Martin.

“We would like to encourage all businesses that are dealing in scrap metal, to streamline their work methods and deal in genuine transactions. The utility company should also adopt wider measures to counter such thefts like target harden, better wire and equipment protection,” Enanga cautioned.

The suspects are to be charged with being in possession of suspected stolen items, malicious damage, theft and related conspiracies as operations continue with a view of identifying more suspects.

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