Louis Kasekende: The financial services industry and its role in Uganda's economy

Remarks by Dr Louis Kasekende, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda, at the 2017 Annual Dinner for the Uganda Bankers' Association (UBA), Kampala, 24 November.

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

The Guest of Honour,

Chairman of Uganda Bankers' Association,

Chief Executive Officers of Financial Institutions,

Executive Director of Uganda Bankers Association,

Invited Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Good evening

I bring warm greetings from the Governor, who is unable to be here with us this evening. I will begin by commending the Uganda Bankers' Association (UBA) for all of the good work that it has done this year. In particular, I would like to highlight the contribution of the UBA to promoting informed public debate about the financial services industry and the role that it plays in our economy. In this regard, the first Annual Bankers' Conference, held in Kampala in July of this year, was a very important initiative of the UBA.

Many of the problems facing the banking industry today can be more effectively solved if banks cooperate to pool resources and realise economies of scale and thereby reduce costs. A good example of this is the project, spearheaded by the UBA, to build a joint technological platform for agent banking, which can be shared by all banks. As digital financial services become an increasingly prominent feature of the banking market, the sharing of joint platforms by banks offers the potential to generate significant costs savings, which can be passed on to customers.