Mutebile gets reappointed as BoU Governor― but what are some of the numbers underpinning his two-decade reign? Although he has presided over robust growth of the financial services sector in his 19-year reign, Mutebile’s lowest point in his career was the 2018/19 parliamentary probe that found that BoU culpable in the irregular and mismanaged closure and sale of 7 defunct banks.

News coming in from the President’s Office indicate that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has in line with Article 161(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, reappointed Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile for another term as the Governor Bank of Uganda.

The Governor is the Chief Executive Officer of the central bank and also chairs the Board, which is the highest governing authority of the bank. The Governor and deputy Governor each serve a renewable term on five years.

Bank of Uganda, other than being Uganda’s central bank, it is also responsible for the formulation and implementation of the monetary policy as well as regulating and supervising financial institutions.

Mutebile has served as Governor and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Uganda since 2001 to date.

Don Wanyama, Senior Press Secretary to H.E. President Museveni confirmed to CEO East Africa Magazine.

“Yes, he has been reappointed,” he told this reporter.

His appointment has now been referred to Parliament for approval.

71-year-old Mutebile, who was widely expected to retire after this latest term, has overseen significant vertical and lateral growth.

The number of commercial banks have grown from 17 in 2001 to 25 as at July 2020. While the number of banks have not grown as significantly (Mutebile also closed four banks, while a couple of others merged), the existing banks have grown by leaps and bounds.

For example, the number of bank branches have grown by 370% from 126 in 2001 to 592 at the end of December 2019 and ATMs grew from 15 to 888.

Lending has grown from just UGX521 billion to UGX51 trillion in the same period, while deposits have grown from UGX1.5 trillion to UGX23.6 trillion. Total commercial banking industry assets have also grown by 1621% from UGX2 trillion to UGX35.1 trillion.

Other than commercial banks’ growth, today we also have 5 Supervised Credit Institutions, 4 Microfinance Deposit-Taking Institutions (MDIs), 207 Forex Bureaus, 2 credit reference bureaus, 7 Mobile Money Service Providers (MMSPs) and 82 money remitters, that include 4 MDIs.

Among many other changes, Mutebile has been hailed as a pro-innovation governor. During his time, banks have been able to introduce new products such as cards (debit and cash, Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) and specially packaged accounts to attract savers.

He is also credited for the successful operationalization of credit reference bureaus, amongst other innovations. As at June 2020, cumulative credit cards issued, stood at 1,868,421 while the number of branches of participating financial institutions hooked onto the system, reached 593. The total number of credit inquiries reached 1,228,339.

Other innovations, introduced during his time, include agent banking that as at June 2020 had 17 commercial banks connected, linking up 7,592 agents. 

Mutebile’s lowest point in his 19-year rule was in 2018 and 2019 when a parliamentary probe found that BoU had irregularly mismanaged the closure and sale of 7 defunct banks. Several reforms were proposed to plug the identified regulatory gaps. Parliament also recommended that some official implicated in the illegalities be punished, something that is yet to be implemented to date.