emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : risk management at the bank of uganda opening remarks by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the risk management and business continuity workshop for the board of the bank of uganda, entebbe, 19 - 20 february 2008. * * * on behalf of bank of uganda ( bou ) i wish warmly to welcome you all to this workshop which is focusing on risk management. this workshop has been organised to provide an opportunity for board members to enhance their understanding of risk management in the operations of the bank. in the face of globalisation and rapid advances in technology, risk management is increasingly taking a larger share of management's attention in central banks the world over. this seminar is important to you as board members for a number of reasons. the constitution of the republic of uganda and the bank of uganda act 1993 vest the authority, the policies and the general management of the affairs of the bou in the board of directors. many of the functions of the bank that are listed in the statute, such as the maintenance of monetary stability, maintenance of external reserve assets, issuing of currency notes and coins, carry with them considerable amounts of risk that need to be actively managed. the board of directors, therefore, has a crucial role to play in the management of the risks that are inherent in " the functioning of the bank and the implementation of its functions ". board members are also aware that the financial institutions act 2004 has a section dealing with corporate governance in supervised financial institutions. in order to ensure good corporate governance, the bou has issued numerous regulations to facilitate the implementation of the provisions of this act. amongst other things, these regulations provide for the setting up of risk management committees at board level in every supervised financial institution clearly indicating the board's role in providing oversight over the management's activities in managing the various risks to which financial institutions are exposed. since bou supervises these institutions the board of the bank of uganda needs assurance that risk management in the financial institutions is being carried out satisfactorily all the time. a better understanding of risk management by the board of directors of bou will, therefore, serve the board better to discharge its responsibilities in these areas. in addition to briefing the board members on the bou's current risk management framework including business continuity arrangements it is management's expectation that the board will decide a framework that will best facilitate its oversight of the risk

emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : recent initiatives designed to increase the efficiency of the ugandan banking system address by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of bank of uganda, to the annual bankers ’ dinner, kampala, 4 march 2005. * * * distinguished guests, fellow bankers, ladies and gentlemen an after dinner speaker who was new to the art of public speaking stood up and having suitably saluted his audience stopped dumbfounded. presently, however, he composed himself sufficiently to begin his speech. “ a few hours ago only the lord and i knew what i was going to say ….. but now the lord only knows ”. it is always an honour for me to be a guest speaker at this annual event where the banking fraternity gets an opportunity to interact and exchange views in a relaxed environment away from each one ’ s busy place of work. at a similar event last year, i was challenged to speak about the basel ii accord or the new capital accord as it is referred to by many of you. i vaguely recall the levels of boredom which showed on the faces of most of those who were present that evening, which is something i do not wish to see repeated tonight. this time round i will make life easy for everyone by talking about mundane things let me first report on the state of the financial sector. substantive progress has been made in building a sound and profitable financial system. in the 1980s and 1990s, the banking system was under severe stress ; many banks were riddled by high levels of non - performing assets and some banks were insolvent. as a result, in 1995, two banks were seized by bank of uganda. the uganda commercial bank had to be restructured and recapitalised by the government and the non - performing assets recovery trust was created in 1995 to recover unpaid debt totaling the equivalent of us $ 34million. ucb deposits at that time represented over 20 % of the total deposits of the banking system and the feeling was abroad that it was too large to be allowed to fail. in 1998 and 1999, four more banks, accounting to about 12 % of the total deposits of the banking system, were intervened by the bank of uganda and closed. the central bank also intervened in ucb and attempted another rescue operation. during this period, the bank of uganda of uganda instituted an internal programme to strengthen banking supervision with substantial resources being put into training and moving towards a risk - based approach to banking supervision. the resolution