Local Currency Clearing

The clearing of local and upcountry cheques is manual. The main clearing house is the Kampala Clearing House and there are 6 other Clearing Centres: Jinja, Mbale, Masaka, Mbarara, Kabale and Fort Portal.

Clearing takes place at 10.00 a.m. for Kampala Clearing and at 3.00 p.m. for Upcountry Clearing. Checks drawn on locations outside the clearing centres are sent on collection.

Local Foreign Currency Clearing

There is a foreign currency clearing house for a few member banks. Only local USD checks are exchanged by member banks and settlement takes place by telegraphic transfer. Foreign currency clearing like local currency clearing is manual and takes place 3 times a week.

Value Dating

Value dating of transactions depends on the locale on which these are drawn The clearing period for Kampala local currency checks is 4 working days from the date of deposit. For Jinja checks it is 5 working days from the date of deposit and for the other Upcountry Clearing Centres, it is 6 working days from the date of deposit.

National Payment Systems (NPS) Enhancements

There is an NPS effort in Uganda and Citibank is a contributer. The NPS seeks to introduce Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) based checks to improve the clearing payments infrastucture in the country. This is expected from 2002.