I THINK THE SALE OF UGANDA COMMERCIAL BANK (UCB) AT THE TIME WAS INEVITABLE.

I think the sale of Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB) at the time was inevitable. What could be blamed is initial sale to Westmont which to some people looked to be a ‘ briefcase company’, hence the eventual publicity that Greenland Bank was actually running UCB.

At the time the idea to sale came, UCB had a huge non - performing loan portfolio dating back to the time when the 5 year NRA/M Bush war was still on. Many of those loans were seen as unrecoverable given the beneficiaries.

Secondly, the Late Dr. Frank Alfred Mwine has led the bank in opening 130 new branches and there was a scheme for the rural people, all of which strained the bank.

And, you know, the World Bank / IMF prescription at that time was privatization of enterprises which were doing badly.

True, UCB was helping the rural people with getting services near to them, but the truth is, it needed to be capitalized and money had to be identified.

In conclusion, at the time UCB was sold, it was the only option as Government could not get better managers with the ability to manage it without external influence of the connected people who had run it down by failing to pay what they owed the bank.