emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : the progress made on the introduction of islamic banking in uganda speech by prof emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, on the occasion of eid - el - fitri celebrations at bank of uganda western gardens, kampala, 17 september 2010. * * * your eminence the mufti of uganda, the rt. hon. ali kirunda kivejinja, third deputy prime minister / minister of internal affairs, hon ministers, honorable members of parliament, his worship the mayor of kampala, chief executives of commercial banks, bank of uganda senior management, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, asalaam aleikum, eid mubarak, eid mubarak, eid mubarak! it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this auspicious occasion when we mark the end of the holy month of ramadan and to celebrate eid - el - fitri. let me take this opportunity to congratulate our muslim brothers and sisters for having been steadfast in committing themselves to fulfilling one of the five pillars of islam by fasting during the holy month of ramadan ; i pray that allah accepts it. i urge all the muslims who observed the fasting to maintain this noble act of worship. the virtues of fasting should be upheld throughout your daily life both at work and elsewhere. at the bank of uganda, we believe that god plays a role in everything we do in executing the bank ’ s mandate “ to fostering price stability and a sound financial system ”. that is why we adopted the culture of starting all our meetings with a prayer led by staff from different religions and denominations to seek god ’ s guidance. we uphold the freedom of worship and no staff is constrained because of religious affiliation or creed and endeavor to accord equal opportunities to all. in this regard the bank hosts the christian community to the christmas thanksgiving we host the muslims to the eid celebrations. let me once again assure you that the bank is committed to hold this eid - el - fitri celebrations every year. allow me to appraise you on the progress made on the introduction of islamic banking in uganda which a number of local and foreign banks have expressed interest. ladies and gentlemen, islamic banking is a system of banking or banking activity which is consistent with the principles of islamic law ( shari ’ ah ). an islamic financial institution ( ifi ) is therefore

hegemony of the dominant reserve currencies. there is a need for greater understanding on both sides. in the meantime, so far as the reserve bank of india is concerned, we will continue to play by the extant rules of the game. 9. central banks have to interact closely with financial markets for transmission of monetary policy impulses. in this context, ensuring a sound and efficient payment and settlement system is 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches a pre - requisite. taking cognisance of exponential growth of digitisation and online commerce in india, policy efforts have been directed in recent years to put in place a state of the art national payments infrastructure and technology platform. this has changed the retail payments scenario of the country. regulation and development of our payment system envisages the objectives of safety, security, convenience, accessibility, and leveraging technological solutions to enable faster processing. in order to ensure an orderly development of fintechs and streamline their influence into the financial system, we are now working on guidelines to introduce a ‘ regulatory sandbox / innovation hub ’ within a well - defined space and duration to experiment with fintech solutions. 10. in this high flux and uncertain environment, emes could perhaps be better off by stepping up cooperation on all fronts, while recognising multi - polarity. one area of cooperation could be to put in place an institutional mechanism which balances the concerns of both oil exporting and importing countries to ensure stability in energy prices. emes also need to explore alternatives to reduce dependence on conventional energy sources, and give greater focus on renewables and energy efficiency. the international solar alliance, with its headquarters in new delhi, is a vivid example. it seeks to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among financial and solar resource rich countries so that the global community benefits from the use of solar energy. 11. in closing, let me say a few words about india. real gdp growth is expected to clock 7. 2 per cent during 2019 – 20, the fastest among large economies of the world, growing by an average rate of around 7. 5 per cent in recent years. inflation has remained below target, averaging 3. 6 per cent for the period under the inflation targeting framework so far ( since october 2016 up to february 2019 ) ; the current account deficit is expected to be around 2. 5 per cent of gdp in 2018 – 19 ; and the gross fiscal deficit has adhered to budgetary targets. 12. looking ahead