“There is no way you can have an economy that is developed when the financial sector is underdeveloped,” Mugume said while making opening remarks at the event.
According to the study, Uganda maintained an interest rate between 12 and 16 percentage points between 2007 and 2018, a figure relatively higher than Kenya which peaked at 10 per cent in the same period.
For a while now, the deposit lending spread - a gap between the deposit and lending rates in banks - has been determined by the cost of bank credit and the level of interest rates.
EXPENSIVE BORROWING
Experts believe that high bank lending interest rates have reduced Uganda’s economic growth and made borrowing an expensive source of capital for investment. Uganda’s private sector depends heavily on commercial bank rates, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the credit in the market.