By our reporter
Justine Bagyenda, the now former Exec. Director in charge of supervision at BoU could have without any hindrances featured in the famous fobes magazine as Africa’s richest woman, if she had not been ‘interfered’ with the recent interdiction by governor of Uganda Prof. Emanuel Tumusime Mutebile.
As if that’s not enough, pundits last night in a heated debate at Serena Hotel that this reporter eaves dropped argued that, Bagyenda could have even secured another slot in the Magazine’s annual rankings; “Africa’s fastest growing and influential woman” shelving East of Sahara Africa’s first woman aerial engineer Winnie Byanyima [current Exec. Director Oxfarm] and Africa’s first woman president of Liberia H.E Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
This, according to pundits was due to how she earned over UGX 20 Billion in a period of less than six years at the helm of the banking sector!
Last week, The SpyUganda leaked the fat accounts of the amiable Bagyenda for the first time.
The Accounts, with ‘crazy’ amounts of money are held in three Banks; Diamond Trust, Barclays and Guaranty Trust Banks in the names of Justine Nuwagaba Bagyenda.
In one of her Dollar Accounts number held in Diamond Trust Bank, named Prime Dollar Savings Account, as of November 20, 2017 had US$1,074,450 (Shs3.9bn going by the current exchange rate). This is for the period January1, 2014 to November20, 2017.
However, the statement does not capture the US$315,717(Shs1.14bn) which, a certificate of deposit shows she earned from a fixed account transaction after she had deposited $176,717 on 29 December 2016 at a 4.75 per cent rate. The transaction matured a year later.
The same account is expecting to earn Bagyenda US$214,149(Shs779.1 million) on December 29, 2018 when a US$214149 fixed deposit she made matures.
Bagyenda also has a ‘Low Start Savings Account’ in DTB. The Shillings Account No. (withheld) had a staggering balance totaling to Shs10.37bn as of November 2017.
The balance is an accumulation of a period January1, 2014 up to November 20, 2017.
The same account is expecting another Shs429 million on 07 March 2018 when Shs179 million she fixed in September 2017 at 10% interest rate matures.
A critical analysis of her leaked bank statements in our possession, by 21 October 2017, the shillings account in Barclays had a balance of Shs98 million.
Her account in GT Bank has also a balance of over Shs600m. Additionally, there are billions of Shillings deposited to her various bank accounts from Centenary Bank by a one, Kenny Muwonge.
Putting a conservative monthly savings of Shs20m, in her 36-year stint at Bank of Uganda, Bagyenda would have saved only Shs8.64bn excluding interest rates.
Last year, city lawyer Denis Nyombi from Denis Nyombi & Co. Advocates petitioned the office of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) asking for investigations into the wealth of Justine Bagyenda.
Nyombi claims to be privy to information that Bagyenda under declared her assets and liabilities to the IGG, contrary to the Leadership Code Act, 2002.
He says he has documents linking Bagyenda and other officials in the directorate of supervision at the Bank of Uganda to several properties yet they earn a gross monthly salary of less than Shs32m.
Bagyenda, whose contract at BoU was supposed to end in June 2018, was ended prematurely while on leave. In a surprise reshuffle announced by Governor Emmanuel Mutebile, Bagyenda’s name also featured and was forced to an early retirement.
In her position, Prof. Mutebile appointed Dr. Tumubweine Twinemanzi as the new Executive Director in charge of Supervision.
Reports suggest that her problems emanated from the ‘mishandling’ of city business mogul Sudhir Ruparelia’s Crane Bank impasse that saw one of the top banks in the country collapse under unclear circumstances, under her direct supervision.
To add salt to an injury, last week, the Governor BoU extended his axe at The Micro finance Support Centre and replaced Bagyenda who had been representing the Bank as Chairperson with former minister Dr. Samson Kisamba Mugerwa.
Dr.Sudhir’s Meera Investments Ltd, owners of the 46 former Crane bank buildings has since taken both DFCU that took over Crane Bank through BoU and Uganda Land commission (ULC) to court demanding compensation worth UGX 32 Billion in unpaid rental obligations in various properties across the country. All this,is said to have been caused by Bagyenda’s mishandling of Crane Bank matters.
