labour on Labour Day
Sometimes I wonder if we are ever going to reform & develop, or if by being profitable and making money we see no need for some reforms - corporate, land, ICT, political or other.
Rwanda is on the fast path to being an ICT powerhouse. They may get there, but we have the beach, undersea cable etc. - all we have to do is wait to benefit from them. Uganda and Sudan have oil – but so what? It will have to pass through here.
Stanbic Uganda [Pre tax profit of 69 billion ($41 million) [up 37%] and a dividend of Ug. 6.64 shillings per share (up 10%)] is able to e-mail to shareholders their annual reports, AGM notices, and proxies; meanwhile many Kenyan companies talk about it, have amended their by-laws to enable it, but I'm yet to see it done (any examples? - but maybe having 1 million expensive shareholders will entice them to take the next step forward).
In Uganda, empty plots display their legal numbers and have some sequential order by street; here in Kenya L.R. no’s (the official designation of parcels of land) only appear in court documents/mentioned in scandals and are only understood by estate agents.
In Uganda the Central Bank publishes all bank charges in the newspapers for customers to compare; here they give them to some private agency (FSD Kenya) to interpret for customers.
While the Kenyan audit bodies (FIRE, ICPAK) fault our companies for not disclosing the director compensation which they ask their shareholders to dutifully approve at each AGM, Stanbic Uganda shareholder can see that their chairman earns $10,400 and what each board member earns ($1,700 to $4,250) for them to approve.
Lastly, I don’t know any Ugandan stockbrokers but I’m sure it’s easier to ascertain their performance (and avoid rogue brokers) than it is here.
