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Uganda Banking
Government-owned institutions dominated most banking in
Uganda. In 1966 the Bank of Uganda, which controlled
currency
issue and managed foreign exchange reserves, became the
Central
Bank. The Uganda Commercial Bank, which had fifty branches
throughout the country, dominated commercial banking and
was
wholly owned by the government. The Uganda Development
Bank was a
state-owned development finance institution, which
channeled
loans from international sources into Ugandan enterprises
and
administered most of the development loans made to Uganda.
The
East African Development Bank, established in 1967 and
jointly
owned by Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, was also concerned
with
development finance. It survived the breakup of the East
African
Community and received a new charter in 1980. Other
commercial
banks included local operations of Grindlays Bank, Bank of
Baroda, Standard Bank, and the Uganda Cooperative Bank.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the number of
commercial
bank branches and services contracted significantly.
Whereas
Uganda had 290 commercial bank branches in 1970, by 1987
there
were only 84, of which 58 branches were operated by
governmentowned banks. This number began to increase slowly the
following
year, and in 1989 the gradual increase in banking activity
signaled growing confidence in Uganda's economic recovery.
Data as of December 1990
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