number has now risen to 5. 5 million. but perhaps what is more important than the increase in the number of branches or bank accounts is the fact that many of the new entrants into the banking market, all owned by the private sector and predominantly from other african countries, are bringing unique attributes to banking in uganda. in particular, they are able to draw upon expertise in serving the specific needs of businesses and households which has been gained in the markets of their parent banks, particularly with regard to new products or innovative ways of delivering services to customers. for example, imperial bank offers banking products such as structured warehouse financing, supply chain financing and asset financing to a wide range of its clients in the small and medium size enterprise and mid - corporate segments of the business sector. bis central bankers ’ speeches competition within the banking market takes many different forms. if new banks are to expand their market share, they must be able to carve out a viable niche in the market and offer their customers financial products and services which cannot be obtained from their competitors. new entrants must grow in order to survive in the banking market, because there are important economies of scale to be realised in banking. with the implementation of the common market in the east african community, competition will intensify and efficiency and quality of service will be paramount for success in the market place. to survive, banks will have to find ways of reducing their costs and passing these reductions onto their customers and seek to develop innovative quality products for the market. with these remarks, i once again thank the shareholders, the board of directors and management of imperial bank for demonstrating their commitment to serve the people of uganda through the expansion of the branch network. this will also contribute to advancing the bank of uganda ’ s financial inclusion agenda, which involves spreading access to formal financial services to those sections of the population which currently lack access. it is now my honor and great pleasure to declare the imperial bank ’ s acacia mall kampala branch officially inaugurated. thank you for listening. bis central bankers ’ speeches

the local switch. i am also glad to recognize that this facility will greatly help our international visitors during the forthcoming chogm meetings. it is encouraging to note that a major focus of the orient xpress visa project will be provision of basic banking services in rural areas of uganda through the deployment of point of sale machines to rural trading centers. i am informed that this orient bank initiative has been strongly supported by usaid rural speed project who deserves our unreserved praise. it is my ardent hope that this initiative will prove a success, which will be replicated by other banks. there is too high a proportion of the branches of commercial banks concentrated in kampala and its environs while many regional towns, let alone the rural areas, are neglected in terns of access to financial services. ugandan bank customers have been relatively slow to adopt many of the features that card technology offers. in many cases, ugandans carry around sums of cash that are far too large for safety because they do not know that there are other ways of doing business. it is therefore important that people should know what options are available to them to make the management of their money and their daily financial transactions easier. in this regard, i would urge orient bank to embark on a rural information campaign to promote wide use of orient xpress visa card. such a campaign, if vigorously implemented, could enable some customers who are presently bankable but do not have accounts to skip a whole generation of technology and go straight to the use of plastic money. the bank of uganda fully backs such developments and pledges all the necessary support to financial institutions, which pro - actively initiate innovations of financial products as they foster financial deepening. consequently, bank of uganda congratulates orient bank limited upon this historic achievement. however, while the bank of uganda very much welcomes innovations, we know that such initiatives come along with a wide range of inherent risks which should be carefully evaluated and credible mitigation measures instituted in order to ensure not only the safety of depositors ’ funds but also the soundness of the financial system. consequently, all supervised financial institutions planning to roll - out new financial products must conduct comprehensive evaluation of inherent risks associated with such products and proceed to institute credible risk management framework prior to launching such products. i am reliably informed that orient bank limited has met these requirements. turning to the current state of uganda ’ s financial sector, i must confirm to the public that the sector has continued to be sound and resilient