After a rather long sabbatical- I will be posting again. Work, a few engagements have kept me away. Today is the reading of the Uganda budget, and so another pretty busy day. Yesterday i stood in line at two banks in Kampala, Stanbic Bank and Barclays- i noticed that the line for depositing was considerably longer than that for withdrawals on the one hand and on the other hand the line for those wishing to check their balances was equally long. Now am no economist but clearly something positive is happening here. For long the official word is saving in Uganda are some of the lowest ( i disputed this because the money is going somewhere and maybe not to the banks) now it looks like recent changes in the financial system including a number of new banks has encouraged people to slowly trickle to the formal economy.
Whether the formal economy is ready is another subject altogether. For now between our dual simcard phones, our ATM’s, and local supermarket, life in Kampala is increasingly looking like life in New Delhi….
