President Museveni blasts banks

Publication date: Tuesday, 25th May, 2004

THIS WAY: Mozambican prime minister Mrs. Louisa Diogo talks to Museveni at the ADB conference at Munyonyo, Kampala, on Monday

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has described Uganda’s banking sector as rustic because they demand for unrealistic collateral to guarantee export trade, reports Alfred Wasike.

Museveni accused the banks of frustrating efforts to end the export of raw materials by Africa, which he described as a modern form of slavery.

“These rustic, villagish, unrefined and unsophisticated banks have never heard of single sales of US$100 million,” he said.

He criticised donors who hold Africa at ransom by claiming that they suffer from donor fatigue. “We are the real donors.

We donate without calling conferences,” Museveni said while opening a joint ADB/UN Economic Commission for Africa symposium on gender and trade at the Speke Resort Munyonyo.

It was attended by African finance ministers and central bank governors and is running for the second year.

Museveni said, “These banks have been dealing in lending to traders and, to some extent, to raw material producers (farmers). They demand for collateral (security) in the form of land titles. Where will a Ugandan who has got an order of exports worth US$100 million get a land title worth US$100 million?” he asked, triggering prolonged laughter from the audience.

He said, “I hope the Exim Bank in Cairo has heard of modern methods of security for loans through accepting confirmed orders as guarantee, which is enough. Our bucolic banking system has never heard of such exotic arrangements. We cannot compete in the world unless we lower the costs of doing business.”
Museveni said he was not sure gender issues could be addressed successfully “in such backwardness.”

He said the Bible was right that one should first seek the kingdom of God and everything would be added to one. “I spent a long time fighting dictatorships. I said, seek ye first the gun and everything else will be added unto you, and so it happened.”

Museveni quoted Jesus before he was crucified saying that the spirit was willing but the body was weak. “In Africa we are willing but the body is weak. We should address these issues in a holistic way,” he said.

He said Africa was backward: men, women, children, presidents and ministers. “ADB is an ally in getting us out of backwardness,” he said.

He urged ADB to support railway reconstruction in Africa.

“The archaic Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam railways; the need to build a railway line from East Africa to Kisangani-DRC, to access the Atlantic Ocean, a railway line linking East Africa with Juba in Sudan; a railway line linking Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, DRC and Zambia. ADB is already lending for roads. That is good,” he said.

He said African women and girls were oppressed by nature. “We need to enable the woman to do her lubiimbi (assignment in society).”

He said women were also oppressed by discriminatory traditions such as no inheritance.
“The woman has always been dependant on her father, brother, husband or her son,” he said, adding that Africa clans were patrilineal. “

“You could not marry within your clan and the father was the head of the family unit,” he explained.
Museveni said Uganda had empowered women through universal primary education, immunisation and creation of seats in parliament.

Ends

This article can be found on-line at: http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/362232