British American Tobacco Uganda on Friday reported a 25% decline in net profit for the year ended December 2016, which it blamed on excise-driven price increases and a tough economy that led to a fall in disposable incomes.
The trend is unchanged from the previous quarter; while Uganda’s two leading English-language dailies recorded drops in circulation, Bukedde – the Luganda daily published by Vision Group – sold more copies than in the previous period.
Bank of Uganda on Wednesday lowered the central bank rate by 0.5% to 11.5% from the 12% set in December.
After growing at an average rate of 7.8% in 1990-2010, the expansion of Uganda’s economy slowed to 4.5% in the five years to 2016. The prevailing consensus among economists is that growth this year will hew to the rate of the last few years.
Arise, an investment company based in Cape Town, is lending $50 million to dfcu Bank to help cover short-term capitalisation of the lender, weeks after it purchased the insolvent Crane Bank.
Uber has lowered prices for its cheaper uberX option in Kampala; the new fares came into effect on 9 February.
The ongoing whistleblower campaign by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has recovered over Shs1.8 billion through information provided by over 140 whistleblowers, figures from the fund show.
The headwinds that hit Uganda’s economy in 2016 did not spare the property sector; it was “a turbulent year for the property market,” real estate consultancy Knight Frank says in its Uganda Market Update for the second half of 2016.
Kansai Plascon Africa Limited, a subsidiary of the Osaka-based Kansai Paint Co, has reached a binding agreement for the full acquisition of Sadolin Paints’ operations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar, and Burundi, according to a company statement.
The World Bank says Uganda’s economy must grow by 12% each year until 2020 if it is to achieve its goal of middle-income status by that time. But that is twice the growth rate it considers realistic for Uganda’s GDP in the medium-term