The Standard Group of South Africa has made changes at the executive suite of Stanbic Bank Uganda, promoting chief executive Patrick Mweheire to group regional chief executive for East Africa. Anne Juuko takes over at the helm of the Uganda office. She was previously the head of treasury and operations at the bank.

In his new capacity, Mr Mweheire will be responsible for oversight of Stanbic Group’s operations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan and Ethiopia effective March 1, and will be based in Nairobi.

The new role grants him strategic focus on corporate finance transactions. A career banker, Mr Mweheire previously worked at Prudential Securities LLP and Merrill Lynch, one of America’s largest investment banks.

As Uganda’s largest bank by assets, the lender’s stock market fortunes dropped as retail investors became disgruntled over its low dividend policy. The bank’s profits grew by nearly 50 per cent during Mr Mweheire’s tenure, but its annual dividends remained below Ush5 ($0.001) per share.

 The bank’s share price at the Uganda Securities Exchange fell from Ush35 ($0.009) in 2015 to Ush24 ($0.006) at the end of 2019.

“The bank’s profits doubled, total incomes rose to Ush800 billion ($215 million), our market share on customer deposits rose from 16 per cent to 20 per cent and we also improved overall service levels over the past five years. I also pursued the joint agency banking company project under the Uganda Bankers Association and other industry initiatives,” Mr Mweheire said.

Stanbic Uganda’s share price rose by 0.17 per cent to Ush24.04 ($0.006) on Wednesday, a day after the executive changes were announced, reflecting slight optimism surrounding the reorganisation and pending full year results for 2019.

The bank’s profit after tax rose from Ush96 billion ($25.7 million) at the end of June 2018 to Ush134 billion ($36 million) by the end of June 2019, while total assets increased from Ush5.1 trillion ($1.4 billion) to Ush6.1 trillion ($1.6 billion) during the same period.