Bank Minimum Capital Raised

By Richard Mutumbaand Joyce NamutebiTHE minimum capital requirement for banks will be raised from sh2b to sh4b next year, Parliament has heard.This was contained in the report of the committee on finance, planning and economic development debated in the House on Friday.However, the legislators, in their report on the 2002/2003 policy statement of the Ministry of Finance, urged the Government to formulate a deliberate policy to attract more people into the banking sector.The legislators argued that this would help mobilise resources internally and increase domestic savings and investment levels.“The committee was informed that minimum capital requirements were raised from sh1b to sh2b in 2001 and will be raised again to sh4b in 2003,” the report presented by the chairperson, Ephraim Kamuntu, said.The committee noted that the vision of the ministry to eradicate absolute poverty by 2017 could not be achieved when the revenue collection was low.The committee urged the Government to provide more information on a cost-benefit analysis for Uganda being a beneficiary under the AGOA arrangement.The MPs said the impressive economic growth had not translated into poverty reduction across regions and districts. They said the national poverty levels fell from 56% to 35% between 1992 and 2000 but had gone up to 67% in northern Uganda due to continued instability.Ends