By David Mwanje
Stanbic Bank Uganda has marked 35 years in the country with the launch of an 18-month brand platform called Keep Growing, which will guide its operations across retail, SME, corporate and social investment activities.
At the launch in Kampala, Chief Executive Mumba Kalifungwa said the bank’s journey has run alongside Uganda’s economic changes over the past three decades. Stanbic remains the country’s largest commercial bank by assets, holding about 19.5% of the market. In the first half of 2025, the bank reported USh 11.7 trillion in assets, USh 278 billion in profit, and USh 273 billion in tax payments. Its position in the sector has been strong since acquiring an 80% stake in Uganda Commercial Bank in 2002.
Beyond financial performance, Stanbic continues to invest in education, enterprise development and agriculture. The Stanbic National Schools Championship now in its ninth year has reached more than 1,500 secondary schools, promoting public speaking, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Some participants have gone on to start businesses or secure scholarships, including a former champion from Gulu High School who now runs an agro-processing enterprise in Lira.
The Stanbic Business Incubator has trained or supported more than 5,000 enterprises over the past decade. Its programmes include the Hi Innovator initiative for tech start-ups, a USADF-supported programme for farmer cooperatives, enterprise support in the Albertine region and an accelerator for women-led businesses.
Agriculture finance remains central to the bank’s portfolio. Stanbic funds value-chain projects for coffee, maize and other staples and has introduced solar irrigation financing for smallholder farmers. In western Uganda, the bank is working with local groups to prepare youth and women-led firms for supply-chain opportunities linked to the oil and gas sector.
In education and health, Stanbic has awarded over 1,000 vocational scholarships since 2015, many of them for girls pursuing science and technical courses. The bank has also supported maternal health through mama kits and contributed to cancer care initiatives. Its environmental commitments include the planting of more than 500,000 trees in the last five years.
Executive Director Sam Mwogeza said these programmes reflect the bank’s effort to support long-term economic resilience across communities.
The Keep Growing platform will guide the bank’s focus areas for the next 18 months, including youth employment, agricultural modernisation and digital financial inclusion.
Thirty-five years after entering the Ugandan market, Stanbic says the next phase of its strategy will focus on expanding access to finance, strengthening enterprise capacity and increasing community investments
