Given the recurring incidents of these high level banking scandals leads to the question- where is the arm of the regulatory in all this? Where is the bank of Uganda?
About this time two years ago, February 2018, the city of Kampala Central Business District was rife with rumours of an impending fore closure of a leading market player in the local banking sector. Back then, the public was advised not to engage in speculation and encouraged not to worry as the regulatory authority- Central Bank had everything under control. Ensuing developments did in fact lead to the said bank’s fore closure amidst a lot of public and personal discontent that eventually sparked a Parliamentary commission of inquiry into the entire regulatory management of the banking sector. To the ‘Omuntu wa Wansi’ – common citizenry, the revelations were quite infuriating as they exposed impunity, corruption and insensitivity to their plight. The commission unveiled layer after layer of disgusting horrid unethical acts that smirked of the kleptocracy that has come to define the technocrats of the current governing establishment.
In the same vain, today the Kampala Central Business District is now rife with a banking fraud scandal that seems to have affected one of their very won. The said fraud is said to be premised at a renown merchant bank- Diamond Trust Bank Uganda from where huge sums of money seem to have been siphoned an account belonging to an equally well renown traders account. The humongous nature of the amounts involved has led to scampering and speculation as traders are worried about their deposits with this bank and other banks in general. This sounds a familiar script, and the worst is being anticipated. The central business district is quite jittery about such rumours- unfounded as they may be. What starts as an anthill of a problem in the banking sector, quickly escalates into a mountain of a problem and going by the current euphoria on the street the anticipated fore-closure of this said bank is not entirely out of the question?
Given the recurring incidents of these high level banking scandals leads to the question- where is the arm of the regulatory in all this? Where is the bank of Uganda? How does a client loose up to UGX 100 billion in unmonitored transactions without flexing a muscle? Is there under current an undercurrent collusion between the affected bank and the Central Bank? At the expense of the ‘Omuntu wa Wansi ! This spectacle would be sad. Already the ‘Omuntu wa Wansi feels and believes that they are being managed by a government that hardly cares about them. Even in the event when their very own make it up the economic ladder –like this unfortunate client, they care to know that all is well with them because that is what they all aspire to be and aspire for. Government institutions that conspire with private enterprise to stifle and muzzle the ‘street heroes’ of this city shed a bad light on government and loss of credibility if there is any left at all.
Uganda Times advises that this is time to crack the whip. Regulatory institutions should be seen acting to protect the common citizenry – ‘Omuntu wa Wansi’ by protecting assets, deposits and businesses acquired through hard work and hustle.
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