Ugandan coffees blended by Aramah on display during the celebrations to mark Stanbic’s 160 years at Serena Hotel
Coffee remains Uganda’s top-earning export crop with a value worth $862.28m (Shs3.2 trillion).
To mark 160 years of operation in Uganda, Stanbic Bank held a coffee tasting ceremony at Serena Hotel to celebrate its investment in agriculture.
Stanbic Bank has been operating in Uganda since 1906, when it used to be the National Bank of India. As a member of the Standard Group, which operates in 20 countries across Africa, the bank marked 160 years with pomp and a reminder of Uganda’s heritage.
Anne Juuko the bank’s chief executive explains that they chose to celebrate this 160-year milestone by recognising two unique actors in post-independence Uganda—coffee and young people.
“We are here with young coffee farmers, and we are treating our guests to a coffee testing experience to honour a crop that has significantly contributed to Uganda’s post-independence fiscal liberation by earning hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, every year. Uganda has the youngest population in the world, with 77 per cent of our people being under 25 years of age—we are therefore privileged to work with the youth who we regard as one of our 160 reasons to believe in Uganda and Africa,” Juuko says.
Stanbic Bank has been a strong financing pillar in Uganda’s agriculture sector mainly through providing financial support in form of loans, credit facilities and overdrafts to farmers, agro-processors and aggregators, agriculture-related industries, cooperatives and key players in agricultural value chains across the country.
In 2018, for instance, the bank provided facilities worth Shs360b to the agricultural sector. This is by far the largest amount of any commercial bank spending in the sector in Uganda.
Japheth Katto Stanbic Uganda Board Chairman retold the journey of Stanbic and coffee farming in Uganda saying coffee and Uganda’s economic growth are inseparable.
