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

emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : stamps commemorating the bank of uganda ’ s 40th anniversary speech by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the launch of the 40th anniversary commemorative stamps, kampala, 3 october 2006. * * * the board of directors bank of uganda the managing director, posta uganda chief executives of financial institutions management of bank of uganda and posta uganda stamp collectors invited guests ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to warmly welcome you all to this auspicious occasion, which is one of the last of the public series of events that the bank has held to mark its 40th anniversary having been established in 1966. as we close our celebrations, let me take this opportunity to thank our partners in the financial and other sectors, the public, present and past bank staff for participating in the various 40th anniversary events that we held. some of you may wonder why the bank of uganda chose to issue commemorative stamps. stamps and currency are alike in many aspects, namely : 1 ) both hold intrinsic, aesthetic, cultural, educational and monetary value ; 2 ) they reach and touch the lives of many people, cutting across boundaries of race, colour, education and income status ; 3 ) promote the country ’ s image ; and 4 ) reflect future aspirations and 5 ) help recall and record major historic events. it is for this reason that in partnership with posta uganda, we decided to issue four commemorative postage stamps that reflect the bank ’ s achievements and commitment to economic growth and development of uganda. mr. paul lubowa of makerere university designed these stamps. allow me at this juncture to thank the management of posta uganda and mr. lubowa for enabling us to realize this goal. the features for each of the stamps are well set out in the distributed brochures and posters ; let me however highlight some of them. the first stamp of shs 400 carries the uganda ’ s independence monument and our 40th anniversary logo – emphasizing the linkage between the bank ’ s activities especially fostering price stability and uganda ’ s political independence and economy ; the second stamp of shs 600 depicts uganda ’ s abundant wildlife in support of reviving and promoting tourism and emphasizing the bank of uganda ’ s role in safeguarding the foreign exchange earned ; the third stamp of shs 1, 600 depicts the tilapia or ngenge, which is indigenous to uganda ’ s tropical waters bodies. as you all aware,