A section Members of Parliament are calling for urgent reforms in the banking sector as one of the ways to prevent what they termed as exploitation of Ugandans.
This is after Justice Henry Peter Adonyo ruled that loans Diamond Trust Bank-Kenya offered to local businessman, Hamis Kiggundu aka Ham through Diamond Trust Bank Uganda (call it syndicated loans) are illegal since it is not licensed by Bank of Uganda as required under the law to carry out financial business in Uganda and ordered the bank to refund Shs120 billion to the Ham Enterprises Ltd.
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Addressing the press at Parliament today, MPs congratulated Ham for the win and noted that this is a landmark ruling as it will help end exploitation of Ugandans by banks.
Solomon Silwany (Bukooli Central) said that for long Ugandans have been complaining about exploitation by banks but nothing has been done. He noted that there is need to investigate and monitor the sector to institute the necessary reforms
Bernard Atiku (Ayivu County) said it is important that Parliament scrutinizes the laws that govern foreign investments in the country, saying that this might be the reason why many foreign investors ‘have taken advantage of these policies to repatriate all the money they make in the country bact to their countries’.
Other mps who included Robert Kasolo (Iki Iki County), Agnes Taaka (Bujiri Woman), Abott Ouma (Bukooli Islands)and Robert Ntende (Bunya South) said that Hams case should open eyes of Ugandans to always scrutinize documents, their bank statements as this is a clear sign that banks can be sued and defeated.
