Bankers elect Sarah Arapta new chairperson

Ms Sarah Arapta

What you need to know:

  • UBA has over the year worked towards achieving a better banking industry through emphasizing good ethical conduct, lobbying internationally accepted regulations and policies. 

Ms Sarah Arapta, the Citibank chief executive officer, has been elected as the new chairperson of the Uganda Bankers Association. 

She takes over Mr Mathias Katamba, the dfcu Bank managing director, who has been serving in the same role since 2020. 

In a statement emailed to Daily Monitor yesterday, Ms Patricia Amito, the UBA head of communications and corporate affairs, said Ms Arapta had been elected by members during the UBA annual general meeting last week.   

Others members elected, the statement indicate, included, Mr Julius Kakeeto, the Post Bank managing direct, who will serve as vice chairperson, Mr Shem Kakembo, the EFC Uganda chief executive officer, who will serve as treasurer, and Mr Raj Kumar Meena, the Bank of Baroda chief executive officer was elected to the position of auditor.

Others include Mr Olalekan Sanusi, the Guaranty Trust Bank chief executive officer and Mr James Onyutta, the Finca chief executive officer, both of whom will serve as committee members. 

Mr Katamba, who is the outgoing chairperson, noted that the banking industry had and continues to facilitate activities in all sectors of the economy by providing a range of relief measures and interventions to support growth and economic recovery during and post Covid-19. 

The banking sectors, he added, continues to accommodate sectors such as education and hospitality, which remained under lockdown much longer, by putting in place mechanisms to enable supervised financial institutions to continue providing credit relief till end of September 2022. 

UBA has over the year worked towards achieving a better banking industry through emphasizing good ethical conduct, lobbying internationally accepted regulations and policies. 

During the period between 2019 and 2021, Mr Katamba said, UBA has been able to submit regulatory reforms report to Bank of Uganda with key recommendations to improve the operating environment for financial institutions, delivered the Electronic Know Your Customer (E-KYC)/ access to NIRA database and established the Green Finance Academy in partnership with Adelphi to provide technical capacity building support to financial institutions in SME green Financing.