By Kitts Mabonga
KAMPALA
The Central Bank of Uganda has warned the public against the increasing cases of abuse of currency notes causing the Bank losing millions of shillings in dirty currency notes which the bank continues to withdraw from circulation.
“The act by many Ugandan of misusing currency notes by stubbornly or ignorantly writing on the notes funny messages like sending sweet greetings to a lover should stop and appreciate a clean currency regime’’ said Agnes Akello, the senior principal banking officer in the currency department of the Central Bank
Akello made the remark while reacting to questions raised by financial reporters attending a half day training workshop on a broad range of services offered by Bank of Uganda including ‘Dissemination of statistics among others.
The training was organized by the bank aiming at sharing notes about frequent issues raised by the public on the banking and financial sector which is the vehicle that drives a country’s economy.
Akello noted that the bank is concerned by many people continue misusing currency notes by either stubbornly or ignorantly writing on the notes funny messages among them sending sweet greetings to a lover while others write telephone numbers over the notes which is unacceptable.
“We warn the public that such acts do abuse the currency notes which are legal tender of the country and it might be criminal for the perpetrators” she said
She added that others expose the money in suspected greasy environments like keeping them in old clay pots or under the ground which acts grossly destroys the sensitive features of notes and as a result leading to commercial banks rejecting such currency notes’.
Subsequently the central bank takes the trouble of withdrawing such notes from circulation which are in millions of shillings as well as using taxpayer’s money to destroy them.
She appealed to the public to observe and promote the clean money regime as a deliberate strategy of protecting and ensuring that no notes are destroyed due to poor handling methods.
During the workshop , bank officials also expressed worry and fears about public opinion over the increasing cases of real risks affecting financial institutions across the world such as the uncertainties like the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war with its effects on both oil and wheat prices at global levels,
Others like rainfall fluctuations leading to increasing cases of natural disasters orchestrated by Climate change, OPEC oil price concerns that may affect the supply market, exchange rates and the ongoing Post Covid-19 pandemic impact which still ravages economies.
Irene Nakimuli, the participate raised the a concern of commercial banks are slow in lowering their lending rates while at the same time too quick to raise when scarcity hits, saying it has not benefited the borrowers yet the central bank sets the lending rates of which they should follow.
“Commercial banks have deliberately failed or refused to give out agricultural loans to the farming population yet the central bank signed a special memorandum with them to ensure they offer those loans at a set lending rate such that the farmers can benefit from these funding services’ ’Nakimuli noted
In response, officers said under the central bank’s agricultural credit facility (ACF) commercial banks have been tasked to pass on loans to farmers at a strictly set low lending rate but most banks have shunned that responsibility which was unacceptable because they are not being fair to the farmers and now the bank shall crack the whip.
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