CERUDEB still faithful to its mission

SIR—We have seen Mr. Nsubuga’s letter in your paper alleging that the Centenary Rural Development Bank (CERUDEB) is interested only in its urban rich customers. The main thrust of his letter appears to be that we have moved away from our mission to provide appropriate financial services, especially microfinance, to all people in Uganda, particularly in rural areas and in accordance with the law. However, our records show we are still faithful to this objective. Apart from UCB, we are the only bank in Uganda with a branch network outside Kampala, currently in 17 locations, with two or three being added each year. We have nearly 300,000 customers and make around 2,800 loans per month so that at any one time we have nearly 25,000 loans outstanding.So what, you might say. If these are all urban customers you would be right. In fact 82% of the loans are lent out in the rural areas outside Kampala. Loans are granted for as little as sh100,000, and average less than sh1m, hardly the urban rich profile. To instill a sense of responsibility in repaying loans (an important aspect if the bank is to be sustainable). Yes, we do take security and in recognition of the fact that not everybody has land titles or log books, this sometimes includes personal possessions. Surely this is not unreasonable.Andrew CavellAg. Chief Executive