By our reporter
A group of youth has petitioned President Yoweri Museveni to intervene in the ongoing court battle pitting Bank of Uganda on one hand and Ugandan businessman Sudhir Ruparelia on the other.
The group calling themselves Youth Power Research Uganda introduced themselves to the president as “a youth platform formed from 120 whatsapp groups with the purpose of advocating for economic empowerment of youth”.
They want the president to use his powers to bring an end to the cases they describe as “frivolous” which they say creates an impression that Uganda fights investors.
The group says the success of Mr Ruparelia was a testament to Uganda’s favourable climate for investors, and the witch-hunt by the Central Bank was an encumbrance to Uganda’s image as a destination for foreign investment.
Signed off by Ben Ssebuguzi, the group team leader, the petition asks the president to make the four considerations to bring the Sudhir-BoU conflict the conclusion including; To prevail over the anguish of Bank of Uganda against Mr Sudhir because it has more harm than good; direct Uganda police, IGG, Financial Intelligence Agency and Parliament to investigate the corrupt tendencies in BoU; and to terminate the contract of head of supervision bank of Uganda in order to investigate the corrupt tendencies in BoU.
The group also asks President Museveni “To maximally uterize Mr Suhdir by giving him incentives like land to expand his flower business in order to increase and expand our economy.”
The petition received by State House on September 18, 2017, and copied to the Prime Minister states that as young people they were “disappointed by the way Bank of Uganda is handling this whole saga of Crane Bank and Mr. Sudhir, one of the shareholders of the defunct Bank.”
The petition adds that there was “miscarriage” in the way Crane Bank was put under receivership by the Central Bank last year.
“We therefore believe that BoU did not do enough to save the glory of the second largest and indigenous bank from being dissolved under receivership.”
The Sebuguzi petition accuses BoU of failing to appreciate “the bank’s strategy of spreading across the various districts to serve those Ugandans who are financially excluded”.
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