Bank of Uganda

 BANK OF UGANDA – BRIEF PROFILE

Address

Bank of Uganda

37-45 Kampala Road

P.O. Box 7I20, Kampala

Uganda

Cable               Ugabank

Telex               61069/61344

Swift                UGBAUGKA

Telephone        +256 414 258 441/6, +256 414 258 061, +256 312 392 000, +256 417 302 000

Fax                  +256 414 233 818

Email               info@bou.or.ug

Website            www.bou.or.ug

Office Hours   0800-I700

Brief History

Established on 1 July I966 and became fully operational on 15 August I966, under the Bank of Uganda Act I966; amended by the Bank of Uganda Act (Cap.5I) Laws of Uganda 2000.

Article I6I of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda I995 provides that the Bank of Uganda shall be the central bank of Uganda. The bank is mandated under Article I62 (I) of the Constitution to promote and maintain the stability of the value of the currency of Uganda; to regulate the currency system in the interest of the economic progress of Uganda and to encourage and promote economic development and the efficient utilization of the resources of Uganda through effective and efficient operation of a banking and credit system. The bank’s mission is to foster price stability and a sound financial system.

 Ownership:     100% state ownership 

 Our Vision:     A centre of excellence in upholding macroeconomic stability

 Our Mission:   To foster price stability and a sound financial system

 Roles:

•  Issuance

The bank issues the national currency, the Uganda shilling; in sufficient quantities to enable the public carry out financial transactions.

•  Monetary Policy and Regulation of money supply:

The Bank is in charge of Monetary Policy.  The Monetary and Credit Policy Committee [MCPC], which meets weekly, make monetary policy decisions.  The members are the Governor, the Deputy Governor, Executive Directors and Director Research as Secretary. The Heads of Financial Markets, Commercial Banking, Non-Banking, PR/Communications, Trade and External Debt and Legal attend by invitation but participate in deliberations. The MCPC decisions are implemented by the Financial Markets Operations Sub-committee [FMOS], which meets daily.

Bank of Uganda uses monetary policy to regulate the quantity of money available in the economy so as to control inflation and ensure price stability. The liquidity management is through Open Market Operations [OMO]- sell of government securities [treasury bills and bonds], Repos and sell of foreign exchange.

•  Acts as banker to Government

The Bank manages Government Ministries and Departments’ accounts and as such, receives all government revenues and affects payment, external or internal on behalf of government.

•  Lender of the last resort

Bank of Uganda acts as the banker and lender of the last resort to commercial banks and other financial institutions

•  Current & Capital Account

The Current Account and Capital Account were liberalized in 1994 and 1997 respectively.

•  Management of external reserves.

The bank monitors the official foreign exchange reserves of the country. These reserves are used to meet government’s foreign exchange payments for debt repayments and government purchases as well as indirect management of the exchange rate.

•  Exchange rate management

The Currency (the Uganda Shillings) freely floats on the Foreign Exchange Market.

The Bank has no view on the exchange rate.  However the Bank maintains an active interest in the movement of the exchange rates and may intervene with the sale or purchase of foreign exchange to smoothen out erratic movements to restore market stability. Similar intervention through sale or purchase treasury bills, Repos is undertaken if liquidity levels threaten a spill over into the foreign markets.

•  Supervision & Regulation

The Bank of Uganda is responsible for the supervision and regulation of the financial sector under the Financial Institutions Act 2004 and the Micro Finance Deposit Taking Institutions Act 2003 and Implementing Regulations.  This is to ensure that depositors’ funds are not at risk.

•  Managing Uganda’s external debt

The Bank maintains, in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, an up-to-date database of the county’s total external indebtedness. This includes public and private loans, suppliers’ credit and payment of individuals.

•  Advising government on financial and economic matters

The bank keeps a breast of all economic and monetary development in and outside the country and advises the government on financial and economic matters. It also provides information on indicative rates and daily exchange rates.

•  Monetary Policy

The Bank of Uganda is in charge of monetary policy. Monetary policy decisions are made by the monetary policy committee (MPC), which meets weekly. The members are the Governor, the Deputy Governor, Executive Directors of Supervision, Research and Operations and Directors of Research (secretary), Statistics, Financial Stability and, Communications. Other Executive Directors and Directors attend as may be necessary. Monetary policy aims at maintaining low and stable inflation. The Bank commenced implementing an inflation targeting (lite) regime in July 2011

•  Supervision Policy

The Bank of Uganda through its Supervision Function, is responsible for the licensing, supervision and regulation of the financial institutions, namely the commercial banking sector and credit institutions (Financial Institutions Act, 2004), the microfinance deposit taking institutions (microfinance deposit taking institutions act 2003) and forex bureaus and money remittance business (Foreign Exchange Act 2005). The bank uses risk based supervision.