Stanbic, the largest bank in Uganda held its shareholders’ annual general meeting this morning. Beamed online, the 15th AGM of the bank was held virtually and shareholders were invited to register, watch the stream online and vote on the resolutions.

Excerpts

• The bank is listed on the Uganda securities exchange and has 22, 000 shareholders
• Much was made about Flyhub, their new financial services and innovation subsidiary created to compete with fintechs.
• Shareholders could get their meeting packs on their phones, with the notice and annual report. Also, they could ask questions, and over 90 were received ahead of or during the AGM.
• There is some board restructuring in Uganda as they separate banks from holding companies. As such, no directors retired at the AGM this year
• Shareholders voted to adopt the meeting notice, new directors, audited report, and non-executive director fees
• They voted to approve a dividend (Ushs 2.15 per share) for 2019 that was paid in April 2021. They also voted on a dividend for 2020 (Ushs 1.86 per share) that is in abeyance. The board has applied to the Bank of Uganda to pay the 2020 dividend but that has been refused as the regulator wants banks to withhold discretionary payouts and preserve capital during Covid-19. As such the board did not recommend this item.
• Shareholders could vote the whole morning, and, just before the end of the meeting, the results were displayed instantly.

Another good thing is Stanbic recently solved a pain point for cross border investors, and allowed them to register and receive dividends by mobile money – such as Safaricom M-Pesa, instead of cheques.

It was the closest thing to attending the AGM of a foreign bank held in Nairobi.