STANBIC’S NEW CEO, ANNE JUUKO: “We have both the responsibility and ability to support our clients and the economy wither the COVID-19 storm”
Most borrowers tend to hide away from their banks at the very first sign of trouble. And as COVID-19 related business complications begin to make landfall for many businesses in Uganda in form of canceled bookings and orders, delayed deliveries, delayed payments, low demand etc., cash, the life-blood of every business will or has already started to dry up. If you have an existing credit facility with your bankers, there is an increasing likelihood that you will begin to default and the banks will start calling. If you do not have any existing facility chances are very high that you will need one, to cushion you against the uncertainties that abound, but chances are that most banks will not be keen to lend, with most waiting to cash in on the expected government rush to borrow from the markets, so as to plug the budget deficits. But Anne Juuko, the new Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic Bank, Uganda’s largest bank, by assets, lending and profitability says, if you have a facility with Stanbic Bank, you don’t have to run. She says that this is the time, to pick your phone or head straight to the bank and talk to your banker because they are ready to sit down with you and craft a solution that in her words, will “walk you through and deliver you on the other side.” “We have put together a robust credit relief package that includes among others, moratoriums, interest deferrals among other things. We are making a bespoke plan for each of our clients so that we can understand the issues they are going through and create a solution that takes them through to the other end,” she says. Juuko who was speaking to media and analysts on Thursday, March 26th, 2020 via a web…