What a difference a decade makes. Back in the late 1990s, Uganda’s banking system was in a mess. Bad loans, many to the well-connected, were running at more than 30%. Several local banks collapsed. One international bank, Barclays, closed 25 branches outside Kampala and was considering pulling out of the country.
Reflecting the prevailing lack of governance, major general Salim Saleh, brother of president Yoweri Museveni, caused a storm with the disclosure that he had secretly purchased government-owned Uganda Commercial Bank, the largest bank in the country by far, through Greenland Bank. In the ensuing debacle, Greenland Bank was put under state management and subsequently closed by the Central Bank because of insolvency and bad debts.