Bank of Uganda gets IMF resident supervisor

Meeting. Mr Mutebile (L) chats with Mr Arshad Rab during the stakeholders meeting early this week. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE

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Weaknesses in some areas. According to Mr Mutebile, the IMF acknowledged that the Central Bank’s supervision had been good despite weaknesses in some areas.

Bank of Uganda has said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has assigned a resident bank supervisor to assist the governor supervise activities in the banking sector.
Speaking during a high level stakeholders’ engagement on building the 21st century economy and a resilient financial sector early this week, Mr Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, the Bank of Uganda governor, said despite the recent rumblings in Parliament, the IMF acknowledged that Bank of Uganda’s supervision had been good despite weaknesses in some areas.
“Bank of Uganda remains focused on maintaining strong supervision. IMF sent us a resident bank supervision advisor to help strengthen supervision so that we get strong financial performance going forward,” he said, noting that the bank has been going through difficult times in Parliament over the closure of banks whose internal governance and controls were found lacking forcing them to be closed.
The Central Bank was recently accused in Parliamentary report of failing to act within the law while closing banks.
The report noted that some banks were sold without inventory reports while others were sold through suspected collusion.
The stakeholder’s engagement was organised by Uganda Development Bank to discuss how Uganda can leverage on current challenges such as youth unemployment, poor agricultural production methods and low consumption of electricity, to create alternatives anchored around a highly technological era.
Mr Arshad Rab, the European Organisation for Sustainable Development chief executive officer and the keynote speaker, said the current technology disruptions, is an opportunity which is creates a new world order of borderless economic operations.
Government, he said, must take immediate action to ensure that the current disruptive technologies are used as a lever to create alternatives that will work for Ugandans.
“This is a new world where factories are working on artificial intelligence, materials are delivered using driverless trucks, materials are converted into goods without human interaction meaning the future of growth requires more creativity,” he said.
The agriculture of the next generation, he said, will require technologies such as drones and sensors to detect soil moisture in gardens and mobile apps to monitor crop growth, noting that government should take advantage of the current disruptions to digitalise different sectors of the economy.
In the eye of the storm
Towards the end of last year, Bank of Uganda was in the eye of the storm during a Parliamentary probe, which highlighted supervision of the Central Bank as a key challenge that had largely exposed it.