Bank of Uganda Deputy Director, Non-banking Financial Institutions, Ms Agnes Kamya Kijiambu said at a media conference on July 31 that Compuscan Credit Reference Bureau Ltd, a company licensed by Bank of Uganda to carry out the credit reference business in Uganda, has embarked on the pilot testing of the Financial Card System.

Five participating financial institutions of the 26 have already rolled out the pilot phase including Barclays, Centenary, Standard Chartered, Uganda Microfinance Limited and Pride Microfinance limited. She said the pilot phase will cover a period of one month.

“Compuscan has started the process of gathering individual contact details of participating institutions branches project support staff and assessing availability of minimum requirements at PI to enable implementation of the FCS,” she said.

Ms Kijiambu said BOU has completed the first phase of the 12 month public awareness campaign to educate the public on the operations and benefits of the Credit Reference Bureau and Financial Card System.

“The campaign was conducted in 21 upcountry towns and activities included workshops, brochures posters Radio and TV talk shows and media interviews. All borrowers will be required to register and carry a Financial Card when applying for a loan,” she said.

Uganda will be the first country in East Africa with a fully regulated Credit Reference Bureau.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200808050073.html