emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : effective regulation will further enable icts to promote financial inclusion speech by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the digital impact awards africa, kampala, 13 august 2015. * * * management and staff of cyberplc and hipipo ( u ) ltd. invited guests ladies and gentlemen it gives me great pleasure to address you today on the topic of “ effective regulation will further enable icts to promote financial inclusion ”. let me once again express my gratitude to cyberplc and hipipo ( u ) limited for organizing the digital impact awards event, and for giving me the opportunity to make remarks at this event for the second year running. last year, i dwelt on mobile money transfer and banking services as an ict - driven development that had had a positive impact on financial inclusion, and the approach that the bank of uganda has taken from a regulatory stand - point. my remarks then may be summarised as follows : 1. mobile money transfer and banking services have had a transformative effect on access to financial services since they were first introduced in uganda in 2009. the number of citizens with mobile money accounts far outstrips those that have bank accounts. 2. financial regulation has two objectives – the mitigation of systemic risk in the financial sector, and the protection of consumers of financial services. 3. the stock of mobile money deposits and the value of mobile money transactions remain a small percentage of total deposits and transactions respectively, and as such they do not pose any systemic risk to the financial system. there is therefore no basis, at this time for the introduction of special regulations for mobile money transfer and banking services to mitigate systemic risks. 4. on the other hand, consumer protection concerns are valid, and motivated the bank of uganda to adopt the regulatory model in which mobile money operators are required to collaborate with supervised financial institutions and maintain an escrow account with sufficient deposits to cover the mobile money that has been sold to their customers. these conclusions remain relevant today. nevertheless, the bank recognises that developments in the industry must be monitored to ensure that emerging risks are identified and mitigated before they are realised. because mobile money transfer and banking services straddle two regulated sectors – that is the financial and communications sectors, the bank of uganda and the uganda communications commission agreed a memorandum of understanding and established the joint working group for mobile financial services ( jwg - m

bank of uganda opening remarks by : prof. emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile governor, bank of uganda, at the hosting of the parliament of ghana finance committee members at a benchmarking exercise to bank of uganda, board room, level 7, plot 37 / 45 kampala road, uganda thursday, september 27, 2018 honourable members of parliament, parliament of uganda ; honourable members of parliament, parliament of ghana ; technical staff from both parliaments ; ladies and gentlemen, good morning, i would like to welcome you all to the bank of uganda. it is a privilege to host our brothers and sisters from ghana, a country which holds a special status in africa on account of the pioneering role it has played in many different fields - political, economic and social – and in particular for its pan africanist approach to foreign policy which has been an inspiration throughout the continent. ghana ’ s pioneering role is also of relevance in the field of central banking. the bank of ghana was one of the first central banks in subsaharan africa to introduce an inflation targeting monetary policy framework in the mid 2000s, at a time when virtually all other central banks in the region were either implementing monetary targets or targeting the exchange rate. ghana ’ s experience with inflation targeting was of great value to the bank of uganda and influenced its decision to adopt a similar monetary policy framework in 2011 ; a framework which has proved very successful in controlling inflation. given that our guests are all legislators, i would like to say a few words about the relationship between parliament and the central bank, as this relationship is complex and not always well understood. the 1995 ugandan constitution confers independence on the bank of uganda. specifically the constitution states that : “ in performing its functions, the bank of uganda shall conform to this constitution but shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority. ” what does this mean in practice? in essence it means that the bank of uganda is free to implement its core policy responsibilities, which are monetary policy and bank regulation, without political interference. for example, the government cannot give instructions to the bank of uganda with regard to setting the policy interest rate. there is a very strong economic rationale for central bank independence, because independence gives monetary policy and bank regulation more credibility with the private sector, which in turn improves incentives for the private sector to act in ways which are consistent with low inflation and financial stability. this is why central bank independence has become an important characteristic of modern central banking around