Postbank responds to bank of Uganda’s move on loans

Kampala, Uganda |  JULIUS BUSINGE  | In a bid to give some relief to its clients, PostBank has announced that it will reschedule loan repayments for customers whose lives and businesses have been impacted by COVID-19 pandemic, it announced a few days ago.

This move comes as Bank of Uganda (BoU) continues to urge financial institutions under its regulatory bracket to work out ways to ease loan repayments as businesses continue to struggle under the country’s lockdown caused by coronavirus.

Julius Kakeeto, the bank’s managing director said effective April 1, the bank will review and restructure active loans for customers on a case by case basis. This would ease any financial burdens that could arise from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move will involve postponing loan repayments for borrowers for up to 12 months in line with the guidelines that were issued by BoU to protect the economy from crashing.

According to the guidelines, BoU granted supervised financial institutions exceptional permission to restructure loans of corporate and individual customers including a moratorium on loan repayment for borrowers that have been affected by the pandemic on a case by case basis but at their discretion for up to 12 months.

In the same direction, early this month, BoU reduced the indicative policy interest rate – the Central Bank Rate – from 9% to 8% to somewhat ease access to loans from supervised financial institutions.

The general public awaits President Yoweri Museveni’s announcement on the progress of COVID-19 fight later today (08:00pm local time). He extended the country’s lockdown for 21 days last week on Tuesday.

Uganda had by press time confirmed a total of 55 COVID-19 cases with zero death.