The banking sector seeks to raise at least 490 trillion shillings in the form of available stock (patient capital) to support the government’s Tenfold GDP Growth Strategy. The sector currently has about 28 trillion shillings but needs to raise the stock for lending to the private sector by 2040.
The banking sector has been identified as one of the key enablers of the Tenfold Growth Strategy, which seeks to transform Uganda into a 500-billion-dollar economy by 2040. The strategy prioritises four key growth areas, known as ATMS: agro-industrial development; tourism development; mineral-based industrial development, including oil, gas and petrochemicals; and science, technology, ICT and innovation, including the creative industry.
Banks are expected to provide cheaper money to the ATMS. The ATMS, which include Agro-Industrial Development; Tourism Development; Mineral-based Development plus Oil and Gas (petrochemical industry); and Science, Technology, ICT and Innovation, including ICT and the Creative Industry (Knowledge Economy were identified as the key enablers to the ten-fold growth strategy.
The Uganda Bankers Association (UBA) estimates that it needs to scale its lending pool dramatically to enable both the government and the private sector to undertake the required investments.
This, according to Michael Mugabi, the UBA chairman, will be the main focus of the 9th Annual Bankers’ Conference 2026, which is organised under the theme: “The Role of Uganda’s Financial Institutions in Facilitating Tenfold GDP Growth.”
“We believe financial institutions have an important role to play in supporting businesses, enabling investment, expanding access to finance and creating opportunities for more Ugandans to participate in and benefit from economic growth,”
Mugabi adds that one of the strategies to achieving this is through partnerships that will help bring in patient and affordable capital from the international market, while the Capital Markets Authority, through the stock exchanges, is expected to mobilise an additional 440 trillion shillings during this planning window.
“Uganda’s tenfold growth ambition is significant. Our role as financial institutions is to consider how we can help make that ambition investable, inclusive and achievable.” The Bank of Uganda notes that the nation’s ratio of private-sector credit to GDP must aggressively shift from its current 12.4 percent to closer to 50 percent to sustain this level of economic expansion.
Allan Victor Walusimbi, Head, Knowledge Management Centre at Bank of Uganda, says the Central Bank supports the Tenfold Growth Strategy by maintaining macroeconomic stability, fostering a safe and sound financial sector, and strengthening the legal and regulatory framework for capital mobilization.
The BoU’s regulatory role has been widened and deepened to ensure that the expected expansion of the financial sector does not compromise its stability. Areas of deepened and widened regulation include the prevention of cybercrime, especially as the industry becomes more digitalized, and the prevention of money laundering.
One of the measures was the mandate given to BoU to license large savings and credit cooperative organisations, so as to ensure that even micro savers are protected. He says the ongoing reforms are aimed at not only protecting consumers of financial services but also enabling financial institutions to remain strong enough to participate in the expanding economy, especially by lowering the cost of doing business.
Wilbrod Owor, the Chief Executive Officer of UBA, says there are several efforts they are putting in place, including the Bank of Uganda’s interventions, such as taking up the regulation of large SACCOs.
Others include the ongoing digitalization of the industry and the introduction of online microloans, but more importantly, partnering with international lenders like FMO. FMO, the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, is a bilateral private-sector institution in The Hague, Netherlands, and is a major sponsor of the upcoming conference.
Owor says that the industry is looking to partner with such other large lenders, in addition to the traditional ones like the World Bank, which has already committed more than 23 trillion shillings (6 billion dollars) over the next ten years, mainly to spur job creation.
He adds that the industry is also seeking to engage with the parliament and President Yoweri Museveni on what he calls needed reforms to attract capital, citing the introduction of the controversial 5 percent withholding tax on foreign debt, which they are challenging, as well as a specialised agriculture financing system.
Mugabi, also the Housing Finance Bank Managing Director, hopes “the conversations will challenge us as an industry to think differently about how we mobilise and deploy capital, support long-term investment, and develop financing solutions that respond to the opportunities and realities of a growing economy.”
He says they will get the experiences of financial industries in the more advanced countries like South Africa and the Asian Tigers, from which executives are coming to participate in the conference. The Minister of Finance, Henry Musasizi, recently challenged the Bankers Association to work with Government to lower the interest rates. He said that he was pleased with the financing structure, which is now directed towards ATMS-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
