Kasaija stings BoU over bank closures

Matia Kasaija, the minister of Finance yesterday criticised the Bank of Uganda for not doing enough to save some of the banks that were closed.

Kasaija made the remarks while meeting with MPs on the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) where he had been summoned to appear alongside officials from the central bank.

“It is very unfortunate that there is a patient who is still bleeding and you as doctor give him poison to finish him off. It is really unfortunate if this incidence, I don’t want to condemn myself but I will condemn myself in the strongest term. I thought the best way to do things is to see if the bank has any chance to survive, then we do anything possible to make it survive," Kasaija said.

he was responding to a concern raised by MPs who detailed some of the confessions by the former shareholders of National Bank of Commerce (NBC) during their meeting with the Committee on Monday.

On Tuesday, Mathew Rukukaire, the former chairman NBC Bank told MPs that despite the harsh and unfair treatment that NBC suffered at the hands of some senior Bank of Uganda officials at the time of its abrupt closure, NBC capital stood at more than 97% of the minimum threshold of Shs 10 billion. They had only fallen short of their minimu capital requirements by Shs 300 million.