The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa has backed the position of the Bank of Uganda to reject a foreign national nominated by the Standard Bank Group, to replace the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Stanbic Bank Uganda, Anne Juuko.
Tayebwa said it was right for the Central Bank to reject the nominee on the premise that there is adequate local expertise to run the bank as demonstrated by its previous CEOs.
“Stanbic Bank was in the hands of a Ugandan, Patrick Mweheire and performed very well. They later brought in a young female Ugandan [Anne Juuko] who also performed exceedingly well. You wonder why they are bringing a non-Ugandan to a bank that we entrusted with our biggest assets and most of our money,” Tayebwa said.
Tayebwa made these remarks while chairing the plenary sitting on Tuesday in response to a matter raised by Paul Omara.
The Deputy Speaker said it was proper for Parliament to show solidarity with the decision taken by government to reserve the bank’s leadership for Ugandans. He noted that such was the practice in other countries like Kenya and South Africa.
“There is no Ugandan who can go to Kenya and become a managing director of a bank; in South Africa where Stanbic is coming from, there is no foreigner who can head a bank, why Uganda?” asked Tayebwa.
Omara observed that Uganda has made tremendous investments in human capital development and is capable of raising the required expertise to run companies to the level of Stanbic.
“Normally, the practice is that foreign nationals are recruited as long as there are no experts locally; yet where we have reached in matters of financial institutions, we have made great improvements and can raise the quality of the CEO needed,” said Omara.
The Minister for Public Service, Hon. Wilson Mukasa Muruli reiterated that it is a common practice to recruit foreigners in positions where the desired proficiency is lacking locally and commended the move by Bank of Uganda
