Stanbic to pay out Shs110b dividend amid Covid-19

Stanbic Bank

Summary

• In a notice issued and signed by Mr Andrew Mashanda, chief executive officer, Stanbic Uganda holdings limited, the company announced that it had received regulatory approval for the dividend payout.

By Christine Kasemiire

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Stanbic Uganda holdings Limited, the holding company of Stanbic bank, Stanbic Properties limited and Stanbic Business Incubator, has reversed its July resolution and announced that it will in April pay out the final dividend of Shs110b to its shareholders for the period ended December 31, 2019.
 
In a notice issued and signed by Mr Andrew Mashanda, chief executive officer, Stanbic Uganda holdings limited, the company announced that it had received regulatory approval for the dividend payout.

“Stanbic Uganda holdings company limited informs its shareholders that it will pay the final dividend for the financial year ended December 31, 2019, following receipt of regulatory approvals,” the notice by Mr Mashanda read in part.
The decision to pay the final dividend, the notice reveals, was reached at by the board on December 29, 2020.

The dividend of Shs110b reflective of Shs2.15 per share, will be paid by April 2, 2020 to shareholders on the register by January 21st 2021.
Mr Mashanda said the resolution will be presented to the shareholders for ratification at the next annual general meeting.

All efforts to reach Stanbic for a comment were futile by press time.
Stanbic had in July withheld payment of dividends after the Central Bank directive to Supervised Financial Institutions (SFIs) to defer discretionary payments which included dividends, unless authorised, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
In an April circular signed by Dr Tumubweine Twinemanzi, the Bank of Uganda (BoU) executive director for supervision, the Central Bank directed supervised financial institutions to defer the payment of dividends and bonuses until further notice.

“Capital reservation to support the real economy and absorbed losses should take priority over discretionary distributions like dividend [and] bonus payments. Therefore, all payments of discretionary distributions is deferred until further notice or until explicit authorisation is given by Bank of Uganda,” the circular said then.
In September, the Central Bank revealed that banks held back at least Shs436.3b in dividend and bonus payout for the period ended June 2020.

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