Stanbic bank Uganda, the oldest Commercial Bank in Uganda, has joined the world to commemorate global customer service week. Stanbic decided to stretch the celebration for the whole month of October, starting from Kampala to Mbale, Mbarara and Fort Portal respectively.
“This is the first of the market days and unlike others who are doing customer service week, we are doing customer service month; this week we are here in Kampala, next week we are in Mbale, the week after that we are in Mbarara and in the fourth week we will be Fort Portal and in each of those regions we are doing one thing; promoting our customers’ activities and giving them a platform to showcase what they are doing and create a market for their goods and services,” said Anne Juuko, CEO Stanbic Bank Uganda at the ongoing Stanbic Market Day at the Railway Grounds in Kampala on Friday evening.
“This is beneficial in two ways; they promote their services and many of them have had record sales while here and secondly is business-to-business partnerships that they can learn and trade from each other and create a close selling gauge,” she added.
Juuko interested the customers, especially the Small and Medium Enterprises – SMEs with proper record keeping in order to be able to borrow and strengthen their businesses without the need for security.
“The single biggest problem we find with SMEs is lack of record-keeping. The business is doing well but the owner cannot tell you their monthly sales, monthly expenses so when they come to the bank it’s very difficult to do an assessment. So, we are saying to them that record keeping is good for you as a business, as a customer of the bank, and it’s good for you from a tax point of view. As part of our financial literacy, we are encouraging our customers to maintain proper books of accounts.”
She also noted that they have embarked on educating their customers on the fundamentals of business.
According to her, the statistics show that the typical Ugandan business does not go beyond it’s their birthday because of the poor corporate governance practices yet the ideas are good.
“So, what we are doing as part of this customer celebration week is to educate our customers on sound business practices so that they can grow and thrive.”
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Ms. Juuko notes no country has ever developed and gotten middle income and beyond without the growth of SMEs.
“It has the potential to employ many more people than any other sector, it has the potential to increase tax collections but also has the potential to add value and GDP to our country, so we are supporting this in many ways; lending to them is one thing and it is the easiest, educating them is the work that we must do but also most importantly creating the platform for them to showcase their activities. It’s free of charge all you have to do is to be a Stanbic customer. The stalls are made up by ourselves, we’ve met all the expenses, all you have to do is come and showcase your services. It is a success and we intend to do this every year.”
Musoke Nagenda, Chairman KACITA Uganda says he is the number one beneficiary of Stanbic bank facilities “but what makes me unique is that I meet my obligations.”
He says that as KACITA, their priority is to assist businesses to formalize and also meet the bank requirements in order to acquire loans and develop.
“We have a special partnership with Stanbic bank whereby you can access a loan without security. This has been a very big challenge but when we engaged Stanbic bank, they decided to design a special program for start-ups who are willing to access the loans and expand their businesses and this is working wonders.”
“The challenge is that some people are not ready to formalize. Can a bank finance you if the business is illegal or not formalized, how do they trust you?” he asked.
Nagenda also tasked those who have acquired loans to utilize them in order to be in a position to meet to pay back.
