Stanbic Bank of Uganda Cuts Rates, Following the Central Bank

Stanbic Bank Uganda Ltd. (SBU), the nation’s biggest lender, said it will cut its main lending rate by 1.5 percentage points this month after the central bank reduced its benchmark interest rate.

Stanbic will lower its prime lending rate to 27 percent on June 29, the Kampala-based bank said in an advertisement published today in New Vision newspaper. The central bank on June 1 cut the benchmark interest rate by a percentage point to 20 percent, the third reduction this year.

Stanbic Uganda is a unit of South Africa (SBK)’s Standard Bank Group, Africa’s biggest lender.

Shop owners in Kampala closed for several days in January to protest commercial bank rates of as high as 35 percent, after the central bank had raised it key rate by 10 percentage points to 23 percent in the four months to November after introducing the rate in July.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala at fojambo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net