Electronic transfer volumes amount to sh45b

Jun 02, 2005

COMMERCIAL banks have stepped up usage of Electronic Fund Transfers (EFTs) as a payment method with volumes transacted in the clearing house amounting to sh45b in March alone, a senior central bank official has said.

By Sylvia Juuko

COMMERCIAL banks have stepped up usage of Electronic Fund Transfers (EFTs) as a payment method with volumes transacted in the clearing house amounting to sh45b in March alone, a senior central bank official has said.

Elliot Mwebya, the director of the National Payment System Secretariat at Bank of Uganda (BOU), said recently that the EFT system, which was implemented in August 2003, had expanded with the number of cleared items rising from 1.56% by the end of August 2003 to 8.02% in March.

“EFT utilisation has progressed in value and volume from nil transactions by the end of July 2003 to nearly 11,000 transactions amounting to about sh45b in March 2005,” he said.

Mwebya said EFT transaction volumes and values had increased by 550% and 950% respectively between the end of August 2003 and March 31.

He said during the same period, the proportion of transaction value of the total cleared items increased from 0.79% to 6.2%.

Mwebya said despite the increased usage of EFTs, cheques continue to dominate most transactions in the clearing house.

“Cheques still dominate the non-cash payment methods partly because, until recently, they were the only known and available non-cash payment instrument that was being cleared in the clearing house,” he said.

Mwebya said with the introduction of the Uganda National Inter-bank Settlement System, the use of cheques to transfer money between banks had been stopped.

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