Pearl Bank Head Office in Kololo
By Johannah Nantongo
KAMPALA — Pearl Bank’s loan portfolio has surpassed the Shs1 trillion mark, signalling continued growth in lending to businesses, households and key productive sectors of the economy.
The government-owned bank announced the milestone on September 1, 2026, saying its loan book had grown from Shs749 billion recorded at the end of December 2025.
Agriculture and agro-industrialisation have been the biggest drivers of the growth, accounting for about 35 per cent of the bank’s total lending portfolio.
The bank said a significant share of its lending is directed towards activities supporting the government’s National Development Plan IV and its Tenfold growth strategy.
Martin Mugisha, Pearl Bank’s Executive Director for Operations, said the lender’s expansion was driven by deliberate efforts to increase its market share and develop products targeting sectors with significant financing needs.
“We set ourselves the ambition of doubling our market share and then developed products that could help us scale quickly,” Mugisha said.
He said agriculture and agro-industrialisation had played a particularly important role, supported by what he described as disciplined execution across the bank.
Pearl Bank said it has increased financing across agricultural production, processing and related value chains while expanding credit to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), trade, logistics and construction.
Partnerships drive lending
The bank attributed part of the growth to partnerships aimed at lowering the cost of credit and reducing lending risks.
Among its partners are the Government of Uganda, the Bank of Uganda’s Agricultural Credit Facility, Aceli Africa, aBi Finance and the French Development Agency (AFD).
Mugisha said the cost of borrowing remains one of the major barriers to private-sector access to finance, particularly for agriculture and small businesses.
“The biggest constraint to private-sector credit remains the cost of borrowing,” he said.
He added that partnerships enable the bank to either access cheaper funding or share lending risks, allowing it to extend more affordable and sustainable credit to underserved sectors.
Executive Director – Operations Pearl Bank, Martin Mugisha during an interview in Kampala
Bank targets further expansion
Pearl Bank said the Shs1 trillion milestone is part of its 2024–2028 strategic plan, which focuses on financial inclusion and supporting enterprise growth.
The lender plans to increase financing to agriculture while expanding its lending activities in tourism, construction and the minerals sector.
Mugisha said achieving further growth would require increased access to long-term funding to ensure that the bank’s lending remains aligned with the maturity of the projects it finances.
“We are still on the journey towards doubling our market share. The next phase will require stronger local and international partnerships and, critically, more long-term capital,” he said.
Rather than significantly increasing its physical branch network, the bank said it is expanding access to its services through digital platforms and agency banking.
Pearl Bank, formerly known as PostBank Uganda, is wholly owned by the Government of Uganda. The bank currently operates 59 branches and a network of more than 8,000 agents across the country.