In 2020, Uganda’s 23 commercial banks added Shs5.2 trillion ($1.4bn) in assets, with a balance sheet total of Shs37.9tn. This translated to growth of 16 per cent from the previous year, an impressive figure in any economic climate.
But 2020 was a year unlike any other. The coronavirus slowed economic activity to a crawl, leading to Uganda’s first GDP contraction since 1985. And since banks are a window into the economy, they were negatively impacted too; nine reported year on year drops in net income, while four made losses.
This makes 2020’s growth in total assets all the more impressive. To make up for sluggish or lost growth from loans to customers, many banks turned to other assets to generate income. These were primarily debt securities and loans to other financial institutions – the story about the shift in strategy is here.
Related: Banks shifted from loans to debt market during pandemic, got bigger
The following is a list of the banks ranked by total assets as of 31 December 2020. Balance sheet information is from financial statements published by the banks in March and April. Larger banks are on top.
| Bank name | Total assets in 2020 (Shs’000,000) |
Total assets in 2019 (Shs’000,000) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stanbic Bank Uganda | 8,572,190 | 6,650,475 |
| 2 | Centenary Bank | 4,499,352 | 3,567,023 |
| 3 | Standard Chartered Bank Uganda Limited | 3,831,129 | 3,153,563 |
| 4 | Absa Bank Uganda Limited | 3,543,373 | 3,423,761 |
| 5 | Dfcu Bank Limited | 3,539,365 | 2,971,987 |
| 6 | Bank of Baroda | 2,138,888 | 1,875,445 |
| 7 | Equity Bank | 2,069,382 | 1,627,230 |
| 8 | Diamond Trust Bank Uganda Limited | 1,774,948 | 1,718,533 |
| 9 | Housing Finance Bank | 1,108,036 | 912,201 |
| 10 | Citibank Uganda Limited | 996,320 | 990,660 |
| 11 | Bank of Africa – Uganda Limited | 880,819 | 803,070 |
| 12 | Orient Bank | 734,388 | 814,080 |
| 13 | Ecobank Uganda Limited | 673,627 | 671,337 |
| 14 | KCB Uganda | 657,255 | 860,144 |
| 15 | NCBA | 559,140 | 537,789 |
| 16 | United Bank for Africa Uganda Limited | 492,523 | 449,264 |
| 17 | Exim Bank | 407,020 | 341,191 |
| 18 | Bank of India | 333,287 | 302,924 |
| 19 | Finance Trust | 325,048 | 258,533 |
| 20 | Tropical Bank | 310,521 | 316,131 |
| 21 | Cairo International | 219,010 | 189,193 |
| 22 | Guaranty Trust Bank | 220,163 | 225,889 |
| 23 | ABC Capital Limited | 61,140 | 58,923 |
| Total | 37,947,928 | 32,719,348 |
