There is enough liquidity - new Bankers’ chair
KAMPALA- The new chairman of Uganda Bankers Association (UBA), Mr Mathias Katamba, has said the banking sector, is liquid despite the prevailing economic conditions.
In his response to a Daily Monitor inquiry, Mr Katamba said: “The position may vary from bank to bank. But overall and on the basis of interbank market, there is no cause for alarm. We also held several planning and preparatory meetings with our regulator (Bank of Uganda) on liquidity should the situation deteriorate.”
Mr Katamba said several measures have been put in place to address this situation including emergency liquidity support for a sustained period.
“With the gradual opening up of the economy, we see that this risk is increasingly diminishing,” he said.
UBA members are fully cognisant that these are unprecedented times created by the Covid-19 pandemic and businesses across most sectors have and are bound to continue going through a period of stress.
“We designed a framework to provide relief to borrowing customers was issued. May is the first reporting & review month of the framework that encompasses a combination of relief interventions that will initially run for 12 months,” he said.
“As an industry, we are engaging customers and responding to their requests as appropriate depending on their specific business needs. We will be modifying the different relief measures as the situation unfolds,” Mr Katamba added.
Sectors such as hospitality and transport have been affected much more than others by Covid-19 .
Specific focus will be put on SMEs that are a critical value chain across all sectors and discussions are going on with several other agencies including international financial institutions to channel more support in this area,” he said.
UBA has a three-year (2019-2021) strategic plan .
