bank of uganda key note address by louis kasekende ( phd ) deputy governor, bank of uganda at the 7th annual international leadership conference organized by makerere university business school ( mubs ) topic : governance in the financial sector : is the financial sector over regulated? entebbe, uganda november 29, 2017 heads of regulatory bodies within uganda ’ s financial sector, the principal, makerere university business school ( mubs ) invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. i would like to begin by commending the makerere university business school for organising this international leadership conference and by thanking the principal of the business school, prof. balunywa, for inviting me to give a keynote address. the theme of my address this morning is financial regulation. i want to explore the objectives and the economic rationale for regulating the financial sector. i will then address the question of whether the financial sector is over regulated in uganda. what is the rationale for regulation of the financial sector? throughout the world, in both developed and developing countries, the financial sector is one of the most heavily regulated sectors of the economy. many types of financial institutions are subject to a raft of regulations, such as capital requirements, restrictions on their business activities and financial disclosure requirements which are not applied to most other types of business. for the most part, non - financial sector businesses, such as manufacturing, construction or agriculture, are subject to health and safety standards to protect their employees and some minimum product standards to protect their customers. however, apart from that, the governance of their business activities is left to the market and is not subject to regulation by a public agency. why is the financial sector different? there are two fundamental reasons why the financial sector is much more highly regulated than other sectors of the economy : leverage and information. the combination of high levels of leverage in financial institutions and informational imperfections provide a prudential rationale for financial sector regulation which is not relevant for non - financial sector businesses. many types of financial institutions are highly leveraged ; their borrowings – their debt liabilities – are a multiple of their capital, in contrast to most nonfinancial sector businesses. the ugandan business sector as a whole has equity and reserves which are almost as large as its debt liabilities. 1 in contrast, the ugandan banking industry has debt liabilities ( mainly deposits ) which are almost five times larger than its equity and reserves. this means that if a bank fails, the consequences

savenaca narube : overview of fiji ’ s economy summary of a presentation by mr savenaca narube, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, to the 19th australia fiji business forum on the fiji economy, sunshine coast, australia, 9 october 2006. * * * 1. economic performance • economic growth has averaged around 2. 4 percent over the past 5 years and is expected to average around 2. 7 percent in the next 3 years. • investment performance has increased since 2001, with the momentum coming from the private sector. 2. what are our key challenges? • challenge 1 : underperforming resource based sectors • o gold production has performed poorly in spite of favourable international prices recorded in recent years o forestry showing signs of recovery in the medium term o fisheries sector has shown some growth but is still below potential o mitigating factors : a company restructure is underway at the vatukoula gold mine incentives are being offered by government for investment in agricultural production greater public - private partnership is being encouraged government is looking at ways to improve market access for these sectors value adding initiatives are also being promoted challenge 2 : sugar o sugar production is far below its potential with sugar exports performing poorly when compared to previous years o preferential pricing is gradually being withdrawn : o o 60 percent of fiji ’ s sugar is exported to the eu market eu preferential price will undergo a 36 percent reduction over a period of 4 years, beginning in 2006 expiring land leases also pose a challenge for the sector : around 2, 800 farm leases will expire by 2008 about 10, 300 farm leases will be expiring over the next 25 years mitigating factors : sugar reforms are underway with support from the indian government adb support through the alternative livelihoods programme is ensuring that those displaced by the reforms have assistance eu support has also been promised • • the multi - party system will facilitate the passage of land tenure legislation through parliament diversification within the industry to produce ethanol is also being considered challenge 3 : debt o increasing government debt is becoming an issue of sustainability o while, the higher fiscal deficits in the past worked well to raise economic growth, we now need to relook at our strategy to secure sustainability o mitigating factors : strategic development plan 2007 - 2011 has a strong commitment to lower deficits to around 2 percent in any year of the sdp plan period this is expected to help bring the level of government debt down to 49 percent of gdp by 2009 challenge