ii. Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority

The Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority (UMRA) was created under the Tier 4 Microfinance Institutions and Money Lenders Act, 2016 that commenced in July 2017. UMRA is expected to restore investor and consumer confidence in Uganda’s microfinance industry whose reputation had been damaged by the rampant fraud in SACCOs and the unethical practices by some money lenders. The Authority is implementing the new law with the Tier 4 regulations for money lenders and Non-deposit taking MFI’s having been gazetted and issued. This will help to streamline money lending business and also foster the adoption of good practices that will encourage savings mobilization through SACCOs in light of improved regulation and confidence in SACCOs and other Microfinance Institutions.
iii. Agent Banking

The Financial Institutions (Amendment) Act, 2016 provided for Agent Banking in Uganda. The Financial Institutions (Agent banking) Regulations, 2017 were issued by the Bank of Uganda to guide its implementation. Bank of Uganda has been able to issue licenses to a number of banks that have embraced Agent banking, which goes a long way to improve access to formal banking services and thus enhancing financial inclusion.

iv. Bancassurance

The Insurance Act, 2017 provided for bancassurance, thereby allowing commercial banks to be licensed to provide insurance services on behalf of Insurance firms. The Insurance (Bancassurance) Regulations, 2017 were issued by the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda to operationalize its implementation. The Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda has issued several licenses to a number of commercial banks in this regard.

v. Islamic Banking

The Financial Institutions (Amendment) Act, 2016 provided for Islamic Banking in Uganda. The Financial Institutions (Islamic banking) Regulations, 2018 have been issued by the Bank of Uganda to operationalize Islamic Banking in the country.

vi. Government efforts to enhance Uganda’s AML/CFT Regime

Government has implemented a number of reforms that led to Uganda’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s International Cooperation Review Group (FATF-ICRG) Grey list in FY 2017/18, after fully addressing the strategic deficiencies in Uganda’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Regime.

vii. National Risk Assessment

The Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) in collaboration with the Ministry coordinated a Money Laundering/Financing of Terrorism (ML/FT) National Risk Assessment (NRA), which has paved way for the application of the risk-based approach to AML/CFT supervision. The NRA provides recommendations and an Action Plan which identifies and assigns specific responsibilities to particular public and private entities with respect to AML/CFT. The NRA was discussed and approved by Cabinet in August 2017. Government is currently prioritizing the implementation of the National Risk Assessment Action Plan.

For details, please check: http://fia.go.ug/fia2/publications/national-risk-assessment-report