Gov't salutes Centenary Bank for efforts to boost Uganda's economy

Matia Kasaija, the Minister for Finance and Economic Development, has thanked private financial institutions like Centenary Bank for always supporting government in uplifting people’s economic standards.

In his message read by Ramathan Ggoobi , the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance/Secretary for the Treasury, at the signing ceremony for the partnership between the European us investment Development Bank and Centenary Bank held at Mapeera House in Kampala , Kasaija noted that the shs420 billion (100million Euros) Loan contained in this partnership will be a catalyst for positive change in complimenting government’s effort of supporting women entrepreneurs and micro enterprises.

“I call upon private sector to harness the power of this collaboration to unlock opportunities, break barriers to business development so that we can have a prosperous society. This investment shouldn’t be for the sake of providing money to people but rather support building resilience , creativity and potential of individuals to participate in economic development,” Kasaija said.

He also noted that the aim of focusing on women and micro enterprises aligns seamlessly with the broader national agenda of women economic empowerment and developing micro businesses as an economic base to improve our house hold incomes.

“I call upon private sector to harness the power of this collaboration to unlock opportunities break barriers to business development so that we can have a prosperous society.”

Ggoobi also reported that the fact that Uganda was recently removed from removed from financial action task force’s grey list, it clears indication that its one of the safest destinations for investment.

Jan Sadik , the European Union Ambassador to Uganda revealed that the 200 billion shillings credit facility granted to Centenary Bank is the biggest amount in history that EIB Bank has ever given to any financial institution in Africa which shows that Centenary Uniqueness.

“Centenary’s exemplary leadership of providing banking services to people in rural areas can’t go unnoticed….it has been receiving loans and valuable technical capacity to serve its clients effectively.”

He added that among other reasons why this money went through Centenary, is because of its special focus on female borrowers and micro enterprises as well as clients in rural areas which is in line with European Union’s priority.

Fabian Kasi, the Managing Director Centenary Bank, reported that for over 15 years now, the bank has been working with these partners on a number of programs aimed at uplifting people’s well being.

“The consolidated support so far that we have received, totals to 61.1 Euros and this has significantly transformed the lives of the people that we are serving as a bank.The collaborative partnership with IEB will bring great news to micro , small enterprises and businesses in Uganda because European investment bank and Centenary bank have jointly allocated 100 million Euros to boost private sector enterprises development.”

“Financial infusion is not just an investment, it’s a commitment to prosperity of our nation, focusing keenly on boosting female followers, rural corners of this country.”

This investment represents EIB Global’s largest ever microfinance loan to any country in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions.

The final beneficiaries are micro-entrepreneurs or micro-enterprises with less than 10 full time employees. The investment also aims at supporting lending to financially underserved entrepreneurs in rural areas as their businesses continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 60% of the funding shall go to projects in rural areas outside the capital city of Kampala.

CERUDEB shall use at least 50% of the financing to support women-run or women-owned businesses, in line with the EIB’s 2x Challenge criteria and SheInvest initiative.

As per a previous United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Uganda Business Survey from 2020, micro-firms and female-led firms face the largest constraints, with 80% of the firms reporting difficulties in access to capital. Financial services uptake indicates that only 11% of firms have a bank loan or line of credit, a proportion less than half of the average of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most micro- and small enterprises remain excluded from mainstream banking because the focus tends to be more on corporates and high net-worth individuals.