NEWS – Centenary Bank, Uganda’s largest commercial microfinance bank has officially signed anew Loan Portfolio Guarantee agreement with the African Guarantee Fund, to fund SMEs in Uganda with credit worth USD 25 Million.
The announcement was made during the signing ceremony between the two organisations that took place at Mapeera House, the Bank’s Head Office in Kampala on Tuesday 4th June 2024.
The two entities signed a new partnership agreement marking a substantial increase in the guarantee amount from USD 10 million to USD 25 million aimed at empowering Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Uganda mainly those in Construction and who do businesses which impact environment protection.
Acknowledging the new partnership, Mr. Fabian Kasi, the Managing Director, Centenary Bank commended AGF for choosing Centenary Bank as an implementing partner for the Fund. “Centenary Bank is pleased to collaborate with African Guarantee Fund (AGF) to provide affordable finance to SMEs in Uganda.”, He said.
“We believe this partnership of USD 25 million will again go a long way in improving the private sector and economy in general as SMEs are a key component of our economy and account for over 80% of the private sector.”
He added that, Centenary Bank is always seeking ideal partners with whom it can better serve its customers with appropriate microfinance solutions in an effort to promote economic growth and development.
“With a vibrant and youthful population, providing funds that aid SMEs to thrive, create more jobs and contribute to the tax base is what our economy needs today,” Mr. Kasi noted.
“with this partnership we target more ladies who usually lack collateral to have loans in banks and we want to see over 700-1000 ladies benefit” adds kasi.
Meanwhile the General manager commercial banking Centenary Bank Michael Jingo says seeing African guarantee fund extending it’s partnership with Centenary Bank means a lot and calls upon ugandans to go in any of 80 branches of Centenary Bank loan department country wide to access the funds.
Uganda Investments Authority, a statutory agency in charge of initiating and supporting measures that enhance investment in Uganda, defines SMEs as entities that employ between 5 to 100 people, have assets not exceeding UGX 100 million and register revenue not exceeding shs360 million per annum.
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