What shaped the economy, business in 2017?

If there were going to be signs that Uganda’s economy was to improve from the 2016 sluggish growth, interest rates, inflation and better rains provided that indicator. In 2017, the Central Bank Rate (CBR) fell to a record low of 9.5%, the lowest since 2011. The signal that was being sent by Bank of Uganda (BoU) is that the economy needed a jumpstart and the conditions were perfect for that.

However, 2017 did not start off on a positive note.

Crane Bank sold

The troubles for Crane Bank became visible in 2016 as the struggling private sector players that had borrowed money, struggled to meet their obligation. This had been made possible by the weak economic stance and surge in loan defaults. Crane Bank had been taken over by BoU in October 2016. In 2017, it was placed under liquidation and partly sold to dfcu for what was considered an undisclosed fee. The result of the sale brought dfcu into the top three banks in the country. The addition of Crane Bank assets was in part responsible for the surge in profitability from Ushs…. to Ushs in the first half of 2017. The sale of Crane Bank remains a divisive issue.

UTL takeover

In March 2017, after years of shareholder disagreements on how to turnaround the telecom company, UTL was “nationalized