Deputy Speaker of  Parliament Thomas Tayebwa has urged Ugandans to ensure that they fight for  local and international jobs that can be taken up by Ugandans instead of giving them to foreigners.

Taybewa says he backs the position of the Bank of Uganda (BOU) to reject a foreign national nominated by the Standard Bank Group, to replace former Stanbic Bank Uganda chief executive officer (CEO) Anne Juuko. He adds that MPs can express solidarity with BOU but cannot direct the employment. 

“There is no foreigner who can go to Kenya, South Africa and be a managing director. Why Uganda? We need managing directors from Uganda and at regional levels, let them have confidence in us,” Tayebwa said.

Tayebwa added that it was right for BOU to reject the nominee on the premise that there is adequate local expertise to run the bank as demonstrated by its previous CEOs.

“Stanbic Bank was in the hands of a Ugandan, Patrick Mweheire and performed very well. They later brought in a young female Ugandan Anne Juuko who also performed exceedingly well. You wonder why they are bringing a non-Ugandan to a bank that we entrusted with our biggest assets and most of our money,” Tayebwa said.

Tayebwa made the remarks while chairing plenary on Tuesday, April 2, 2024.

This was in response to a matter raised by Paul Omara (Otuke County, Indep.) about the rejection: “Uganda has made progress in human capital development in all sectors. We have had many managing directors who are Ugandans. Normally, the practice is that foreign nationals are recruited where there are no nationals. Standard Bank/Stanbic Uganda has not explored opportunities for Ugandans to run the bank,” Omara said.

Tayebwa said it was proper for Parliament to show solidarity with the decision taken by the Government to reserve the bank’s leadership for Ugandans. He noted that such was the practice in other countries like Kenya and South Africa.

“There is no Ugandan who can go to Kenya and become a managing director of a bank; in South Africa where Stanbic is coming from, there is no foreigner who can head a bank, why Uganda?” Tayebwa said.

Omara observed that Uganda has made tremendous investments in human capital development and is capable of raising the required expertise to run companies to the level of Stanbic.

“Normally, the practice is that foreign nationals are recruited as long as there are no experts locally; yet where we have reached in matters of financial institutions, we have made great improvements and can raise the quality of the CEO needed,” Omara said.

According to Tayebwa, Ugandans are not fighting for international positions including the UN, FAO that they can take up. 

Public Service minister Wilson Muruli Mukasa reiterated that it is a common practice to recruit foreigners in positions where the desired proficiency is lacking locally and commended the move by BOU: “We have not been aggressive as a country in fighting for positions. We should go for a foreigner when there is no local expertise,” Mukasa said.