The Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) section of Stanbic Bank Uganda—a member of the Standard Bank Group, has launched a new campaign dubbed, “We believe in here” aimed at underscoring the lender’s commitment to its purpose of ‘driving Uganda’s growth.’
As one of the world’s most entrepreneurial countries, Stanbic Bank believes that supporting the local business community is the best way to drive Uganda’s growth and that what entrepreneurs need is a commercial bank that believes in their dreams.
Paul Bitature Muganwa, the CIB Executive Head at Stanbic Bank Uganda said: “Our new campaign—we believe in here” is a rallying call to our local entrepreneurs to come and partner with us on a journey to making their entrepreneurial dreams a reality.”
Muganwa said, Uganda is in urgent need of wealth creators to increase the pace of job creation and enhance the country’s ability to expand her taxable base and boost local domestic revenues to support the national development agenda.
“As the president often says, we need wealth creators not parasites and being a leader in our country’s financial services sector, Stanbic Bank is taking the lead in advancing the government’s value creation agenda—availing our expertise in structuring affordable credit products and extending our advisory and capacity building resources to local entrepreneurs, to ensure that they play at the forefront of driving Uganda’s growth,” said Muganwa.
Enabling customers’ success
From manufacturing to value addition in the fields of agriculture and mineral extraction—the Stanbic Bank Uganda corporate investment loan book spreads far and wide in volume and value which is to the tune of trillions of shillings, supporting large scale actors in the wealth creation agenda.
One such player is Sikander Lalani, the founder and Chairman of Roofings Group who is a living testimony to Stanbic Bank’s belief in the dreams of its customers.
“I had a dream to build something I could be proud of decades later. Today, from the houses we live in; the schools that teach us, the farms that feed us, the bridges we cross, the protection around our homes; Roofings has welded itself into the lives of Ugandans everywhere as the Strength of the Nation,” said Lalani.
“I want to thank Stanbic for walking with us, from the time were just a mere company with an initial investment of $2 million and 60 employees in 1994 to being the largest steel manufacturing plant in Uganda and East Africa with over 2000 employees, Roofings is the crown jewel in the manufacturing sector of Uganda,” he noted.
As the anchor subsidiary of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited, Stanbic Bank Uganda has played an important part in the success story for several enterprises that have now become regional giants.
On Roofings’ success story, Muganwa says it wasn’t a hard decision to finance their dream of becoming the continent’s largest steel and plastics provider; an endeavour that needs a lot of financing that the bank has provided over the years, directly and indirectly impacting many lives positively.
“Over the years, we have built a strong relationship between the bank and Roofings, standing firm like steel, because our success is entwined in their success,” said Muganwa.
A sweet relationship with Kakira Sugar Works
Stanbic Bank also enjoys another sweet relationship with the Madhvani Group of companies as shared by Mayur Madhvani.
“We started Kakira Sugar in 1930 with the aim of becoming one of East Africa’s largest providers of organic natural sugars. When we started out, we didn’t believe that sugar would become a backbone for the Ugandan economy. Now as Uganda’s largest sole investor in agricultural production, Kakira takes pride in not just being a large corporation, but rather the driving force for growth in Uganda,” said Mayur.
Mayur believes that collectively, the narrative that Uganda is a small economy can be gradually shifted to be known as a powerhouse of manufacturing—with the support of the country’s commercial banks, enabling access to affordable financing solutions and other advisory services.
According to Muganwa—Stanbic Bank’s confidence in Roofings, and Kakira Sugar works and hundreds of other local enterprises is proof that nothing can stop the success of the right entrepreneurial dream when paired with the right financial partner.
“Madhvani and Roofings are icons of our local industry whose success we are very proud to associate with; our new campaign—we believe in here, should therefore be a source of motivation for the hundreds of other upcoming enterprises with a dream to become the next big thing in Uganda and beyond to come and partner with us,” said Muganwa.