Ministry of Finance plans to open the operations of the Credit Reference Bureau-CRB to other players come this October, breaking the three years monopoly by Compuscan, a South African firm. Bank of Uganda contracted Compuscan three years ago to launch Uganda’s first Credit bureau service. A credit reference bureau, like Compuscan, supplies credit providers like commercial banks, microfinance deposit taking institutions and credit institutions with information on client’s credit history.
It is this information that the banks use to take a decision on whether or not extend credit services to a particular client.
The information that is on the database is sourced from Banks across the country under the supervision of Bank of Uganda. Presently, the information is only limited to the 23 commercial banks and four microfinance deposit taking institutions. Peter Ngategize, the National Coordinator of Ministry of Finance’s Competitiveness and Investment Climate Strategy Secretariat, says they want the provision of credit reference services to be opened up to many players in order to widen the database.
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Ngategize says this is aimed at improving Uganda’s capacity and environment for doing business and promoting investment. Ngategize said opening up the credit reference bureau services will also roll out and down to credit institutions like village banks, private money lenders and cooperatives which are not captured by Bank of Uganda presently. In addition, said Ngategize, the credit reference bureau services will cover utilities like electricity and water.
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It is not yet clear which local or international credit reference service providers would be interested in the liberalized environment.
