Louis Kasekende: Financial reporting - contributing to Uganda's economy and to the growth of a modern business sector

Remarks by Dr Louis Kasekende, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda, at the 2017 Financial Reporting (FiRe) Awards, Kampala, 9 November 2017.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Good evening! 

I would like to begin by thanking the CEO of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Uganda for inviting me to be chief guest at this wards dinner and to commend the Institute and the other organisers and sponsors - the Capital Markets Authority, the Uganda Securities Exchange and the New Vision - for this very commendable initiative. I hope it will lead to a greater understanding among the business community in Uganda of the benefits which firms can derive by preparing financial accounts that comply with best practise and global reporting standards.

I want to reflect in these remarks on the contribution which financial reporting makes to a developing economy and in particular the growth of a modern business sector. The business sector in Uganda is dominated by small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs); the most recent comprehensive data which are available from the Census of Business Establishments indicates that the average number of employees of a registered business is only 2.3. As is the case elsewhere in Africa, SMEs in Uganda struggle to expand. The vast majority of them never expand enough to become large firms. Of the approximately 460,000 registered businesses in Uganda, less than 1,000 have more than 50 employees.