Banks paying price for trillions locked up in commercial court
Monday May 17 2021
On average, the Commercial Court receives about 2,000 cases annually with only half of these going up to disposal. Photo | File
Summary
According to a 2020 report by Francis Gimara, the former of Uganda Law Society president, more than Shs5 trillion is locked up in commercial disputes with some cases taking as long as 10 years to be disposed of.
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It has been difficult to ignore the noise coming from the banking sector and by extension, the Judiciary.
What has largely been a shadowy court that is less known to the public, seems to have all of a sudden invited a lot of attention due to some hair raising decisions taken inside the Nakasero-based court.
Monday May 10 2021
By CAROL MUSYOKA
Summary
It is fairly common throughout the world for local subsidiaries of banks to draw on the strength of the parent bank’s balance sheet simply because of lending limitations of the subsidiary in its jurisdiction.
In November last year, I wrote about an interesting Ugandan High Court ruling that had the danger of setting a dangerous financial and economic precedent in the country. Just as a reminder, I wrote that a Ugandan businessman borrowed a series of loans running in the tens of millions of US dollars from a Ugandan subsidiary of a Kenyan bank, part of the borrowing of which was lent by the Kenyan parent bank.
Judges ask High Court to hear details of Ham-DTB loan case
Thursday May 06 2021
Kampala businessman Hamis Kiggundu (centre) consults with his lawyers Arnold Kimala (left) and Fred Muwema (right) at Court of Appeal in Kampala recently. PHOTO | ABUBAKER LUBOWA
Summary
The matter arose last January when Mr Kiggundu, through his companies, sued DTB Uganda and Kenya for alleged breach of contract. The businessman had borrowed money from the two institutions and had fallen behind on his repayments.
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The credit markets heaved a sigh of relief yesterday after the Court of Appeal ordered the Commercial Court to hear the merits of a multi-billion lawsuit between two banks and businessman Hamis Kiggundu.