By Our Reporter

Barclays Bank has made some changes,closing down several bank branches around the city together with ATMs.Charles Ongwae, Barclays bank’s managing director, says  the bank aims at getting other sites for  its branches and serving customers better.

“We are in fact looking for sites for new ATMs.” Ongwae was quoted as saying by the local media.

Over the last two years, the bank has closed at least four branches in Kampala: Kamwokya, Jinja road, Nateete and Ndeeba.Meanwhile the banks ATM’s which are closed include ; Kobil Kamwokya, Katwe, Kisementi, Jinja road, Kasubi, Lubaga road, Kibuye and Ndeeba.

The bank’s pretax profit grew by 134% to Shs 25bn in 2011. Total assets, net interest income and customer deposits all grew as the bank showed that it had finally recovered from the tough times of the previous years. With the closure of some branches ,the bank also claims that is only rationalizing its business.

“We have not gone out there to just close the branches; we are rationalizing our services to serve our customers better,” he said. “We closed Nateete branch and Ndeeba, then opened a brand new branch still in Ndeeba, with all the modern facilities to cater for all our customers’ banking needs,” he adds.