While addressing hundreds of stakeholders at the Bank of Uganda Town Hall meeting held at Margarita Palace Hotel on Friday, the Deputy Governor of Bank of Uganda, Michael Atingi Ego, urged the people to start using mobile money systems to reduce financial thefts.
Mr. Ego emphasized the importance of mobile money transactions because they reduce the burden of carrying hard cash.
Dr. Kenneth Egesa, a staff member of Bank of Uganda, disclosed to the participants that the main intention of the training was to interact with district leaders, opinion leaders, and others to strengthen communication and to learn more about Bank of Uganda. He strongly believed that the two-day engagement meeting would help participants learn about community opinion.
Dr. Egesa thanked the Deputy Governor of Bank of Uganda for personally coming to Lira to share his ideas and create a good dialogue.
Mr. Ego noted that Bank of Uganda is tasked with ensuring that transactions such as mobile money are performed correctly without fraud. He said, “There are some crimes that we are now beginning to see in the fraud of mobile money coming up whereby others want to access pin numbers. He noted that all we need is to work together to see to it that we don’t give these guys any room for fraud.”
The Deputy Director also noted that Bank of Uganda has a clean note policy system in place. He displayed an old 1000-shilling note to the participants, noting that some of these notes have served their purpose and need to be retired.
Mr. Ego encouraged people in Lira and the Lango sub-region to use mobile money for daily transactions so that they don’t have to carry hard cash every time they are transacting business.
He said that 23 percent of the beneficiaries of the Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF) are in northern Uganda, but in terms of value, Northern Uganda is at 4 percent. This implies that the amount of money each individual in Northern Uganda is getting is very small.
Mr. Ego enlightened the participants that 70 percent of Ugandans live in the rural area and their main activity is agriculture. He said that commercial banks should ensure that their lending is fair and should partner with telecommunications companies to see to it that the people benefit from financial institutions.
In his concluding remarks, Mr. Ego noted that the issue of climate change has caused crises in most parts of the country and that commercial banks should take this into consideration when lending.
The Director of the Chamber of Commerce for Northern Uganda, Mr. Bosco Ogwang Idola, said that in 2009, they requested for a currency center in Lira. He wants a permanent currency center to be established in Lira and it must not be taken away in the future.
The Deputy Governor of Bank of Uganda said, “On the Lira technical center, I am not aware of the plan to close the center. Business activities in Lira have picked up.”
The Director of Currency, Christine Alupo, said that 50-shilling coins can legally be used and that it is Bank of Uganda’s duty to provide the nation with currency from one shilling to 50,000 shillings notes. She said, “It is legal tender, use it if you want it. They are legal.
