Bank of Uganda urged to establish currency centre in Lira City

Bank of Uganda (BoU) has been urged to establish a currency centre in Lira City given the volumes of financial transactions in the area.

The call was made by Lira City and Lira District leaders during a town hall meeting organised by BoU in Lira City on Friday.

“As you may be aware we requested for this centre in 2009 when the late governor of Bank of Uganda came here to open Bank of Baroda branch in Lira and about three years ago we were given this facility which is a technical centre,” Mr Bosco Ogwang Edola, the director of Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry for northern and eastern Uganda, told BoU officials led by Deputy Governor Dr Michael Atingi-Ego.

The central bank maintains branches and currency centres in various locations around the country, whose purpose is to store, process and monitor the supply of currency to the government and private financial institutions in the surrounding cities, towns, and villages

Mr Richard Cox Okello Orik, the Lira District LC5 chairman, said the land for constructing the BoU branch is available.

 “Lango is a region by itself and Lira is a commercial hub in northern Uganda and I know very well that the amount of volume of money coming here doubles or triples what goes to Gulu,” he said.

“And therefore I always see your bank bringing money from Gulu here in Lira and it would not be good for you to continue doing that when we have available land for your centre.”

Mr Ogwang Edola further informed the acting Governor of Bank of Uganda that Lira is third in Uganda in terms of revenue generation in the country just after capital Kampala and Mbarara City.

“You have established branches in all these other cities: Gulu, Arua and Mbale. So, it is high time you assured as the technical centre is not going away so that a permanent centre must be in Lira,” Mr Edola said.

Currently, there are 12 commercial banks and four microfinance institutions in Lira. The commercial banks include Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Bank of Africa, Bank of Baroda, Diamond Trust Bank, Absa, Equity, PostBank, Opportunity Bank, Housing Finance, Stanbic, Dfcu and Centenary.

However, Dr Ego said he was not aware of any plan to establish a branch in Lira City.

  “I am not aware of a single plan. Let me just give you the history of how Bank of Uganda establishes branches. Bank of Uganda works with the banking fraternity, the commercial banks to assess the volume of transactions that takes place in a particular region.”

He, however, he admitted that the level of economic activities in Lira has increased and BoU would have a discussion with the banking community to assess the level of extent which the business has picked up before it can consider establishing a branch.