Financial Institutions Credited for supporting BUBU initiative.

By; Jjunju Francis

06^th Nov. 2020

Financial institutions have been commended for the key role they play towards the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) businesses.

This was during the launch of the second edition of the Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) initiative.

Launched in 2014, the BUBU policy is centered on promoting the procurement and consumption of locally produced and manufactured goods and services while encouraging local investors to produce, improve capacity of to supply government, enhance the quality and competitiveness on the local and International market, create jobs, among other elements that are intended to drive the country towards achieving middle Income status.

Speaking at the virtual forum, Hon. Amelia Kyambadde, Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives said that, “in the bid to promote and support local Investors and producers, the president had last year launched the first edition of the BUBU expo at Kololo air strip,” where the BUBU logo was secured and gazetted and Ugandans can now use it on their products, in support of the BUBU initiative.

The theme of this year’s first phase of the E- conference is; “Banking Sector involvement the BUBU Initiative”.

Kyambadde noted that, “The banking sector is very important in boosting the initiative and Centenary Bank has played a leading role in the BUBU Policy while it serves Ugandans.”

She further said that the initiative is paying off and government is seeing the results. Already there is increased purchase of locally manufactured pharmaceutical products from 156 billion to 165 billion between 2017 to 2018, establishment of more industries that manufacture masks and sanitizers which were previously imported, not forgetting the shelf space for local packed products in supermarkets that has increased from 20% to 49%; that were previously imported from neighbouring markets.

Centenary Bank Managing Director, Fabian Kasi revealed that “Centenary Bank a home grown business Bank is a great supporter of BUBU and it prides in at least 2 million customers who make up 25% of the entire banking sector and in so doing, they have provided credit to over 250,000 MSMEs amounting to over Ushs. 1.8 trillion.”

Kasi added that “Financial institutions have endeavored to financially include as many people as possible in the banking space with keen interest on the four tenets of Banking and Financial Inclusion; the range of banking services offered both traditional and digital, designing products that are easy to use and access, affordability of banking services at a reasonable cost and offering the banking and financial services in a sustainable manner.”