Anne Juuko knows what it means to take over a bank at an awkward time. In March 2020, she became Chief Executive of Stanbic Bank Uganda. Within weeks, Uganda was in lockdown, businesses were struggling and banks were restructuring loans…
A Shs42.6 billion dividend payment from Airtel Uganda has added to the income generated by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), highlighting how the retirement fund is using workers’ savings to acquire stakes in businesses across Uganda’s economy. The payment,…
Uganda does not need to convince Italy to buy its coffee. Italy is already one of its largest export markets. The bigger opportunity is to turn that established trade into businesses that create more value locally, from processing and roasting…
Uganda’s digital economy is expanding. But as hundreds of thousands of young people enter the labour market every year, the bigger question is not simply whether technology can create jobs. It is whether those jobs can provide sustainable incomes and…
Uganda’s ambition to build a US$500 billion economy by 2040 will depend partly on how effectively it converts its mineral wealth into productive businesses. Yet, beyond the minerals beneath the ground lies another resource with significant economic potential: an estimated…
Aliko Dangote’s planned 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Kenya is putting fresh attention on Uganda’s delayed $4 billion refinery at Hoima. But the two projects are not yet in a straightforward construction race. Dangote is scheduled to break ground on the Lamu…
Uganda’s tourism industry is growing rapidly. International visitor arrivals reached 1.64 million in 2025, a 19.7% increase from 1.37 million in 2024. Tourism receipts rose by 21.3% to Shs5.83 trillion, equivalent to approximately $1.62 billion, according to the Ministry of…
Northern Uganda is looking beyond wildlife tourism to explore another source of economic activity: turning its farms, food traditions and cultural heritage into tourism experiences that visitors can pay for. The proposition took shape on September 25, 2026, when the…
Uganda plans to raise about Shs12.7 trillion in net domestic financing in FY2026 For businesses, the important question is what that borrowing will do to the cost and availability of credit. The Bank of Uganda says the domestic financial market…
Uganda’s National Social Security Fund has delivered its biggest return in four decades, but the record payout also highlights a much larger question: how many Ugandans are saving consistently enough to benefit from long-term investment? For the financial year ended…
For a business, the most important question about Uganda’s September–December 2026 rainfall season is not simply how much rain will fall. It is what happens to the business if a key road becomes impassable, a supplier cannot deliver, stock is…
Uganda’s growing digital economy depends on more than smartphones, apps and online payments. Every day, motorcycle riders move meals, goods and orders from restaurants, shops and businesses to customers, making them an essential link between the digital and physical economies.…
Uganda’s external position is improving, but the shilling is telling a more complicated story. In the 12 months to June 2026, Uganda recorded a US$2.39 billion balance-of-payments surplus, more than double the US$1.03 billion recorded a year earlier. International reserves…
Uganda’s new petroleum import arrangement has given the country a more direct role in purchasing fuel. The question now is how that control benefits the wider economy. For years, Uganda’s fuel largely came through Kenya under an arrangement in which…
Uganda’s shilling has come under renewed pressure in September, with the currency moving towards the Shs4,000-per-dollar mark as businesses increase their demand for foreign currency amid higher energy costs, import requirements and uncertainty in global markets. On September 17, commercial…
Uganda is expanding access to agricultural machinery, but the bigger test of its mechanisation drive begins after the machines are handed over. On September 19, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) commissioned and handed over 150 single-axle…
A UGX3 billion partnership between Stanbic and France is backing entrepreneurs turning environmental challenges into businesses, with 106 enterprises completing the first year of an accelerator programme focused on investment readiness, jobs and sustainable growth. Uganda’s transition towards a greener…
By Ali Ssekatawa The online furore that followed President Yoweri Museveni’s unveiling of Uganda’s crude oil trading name, “Pearl Sweet,” reminded me of Shakespeare’s timeless question in Romeo and Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose…
Uganda has identified more than 58 categories of minerals and invested in geological surveys to better understand what lies beneath its soil. The bigger question now is how the country turns that mineral wealth into investment, industries, jobs and economic…
East Africa has spent decades trying to attract more tourists. Now, some of its most valuable destinations face a different challenge: how much tourism can they absorb before success begins damaging the very attractions visitors come to see? The debate…
For three days this September, Uganda’s national parks will remove one of the biggest barriers to wildlife tourism: the entrance fee. From September 25 to 27, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) will hold its 2026 Open Park Days, giving Ugandans…
A year after changing its name from PostBank Uganda, Pearl Bank has crossed UGX1 trillion in lending, giving the government-owned bank one of its clearest growth markers since the rebrand. The loan book stood at about UGX760 billion at the…
Uganda has moved closer to one of its most ambitious economic targets. The economy, according to Trade and Industry Minister Sanjay Tanna, has grown from roughly $50 billion when the government set out its $500 billion ambition to about $69…
For decades, getting a formal loan in East Africa depended on a familiar set of questions: Does the borrower have a salary? A bank account? A credit history? Collateral? For millions of people working outside formal employment or running small…
Uganda’s cocoa industry is entering a new phase. The crop is no longer a small agricultural story; it is becoming a significant export business. The opportunity now is to build the businesses and infrastructure around it so that more of…
A decade after Ernest Rubondo beat Fred Kabanda to become the first Executive Director of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), Kabanda is set to take over the institution Rubondo spent ten years building. The PAU Board has appointed Kabanda…
Uganda was supposed to produce its first commercial oil by July 31, 2026. That deadline has passed, and First Oil has now been pushed to before the end of June 2027. Yet this is not a story of an oil…
Africa is moving rapidly into the artificial intelligence era. Governments are developing AI strategies, companies are experimenting with generative AI and Agentic AI, universities are expanding AI training, and investors are beginning to look at AI as the next major…
For more than a century, Pan-Africanism gave Africa a powerful political idea: that the continent was stronger when Africans stood together. From the anti-colonial struggle to the creation of the Organisation of African Unity and later the African Union, the…
Aliko Dangote is betting that East Africa can become a major refining market. His proposed 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Lamu, Kenya, could become one of the region’s biggest industrial investments. But before the plant can turn crude into fuel, it must…
Pearl Bank says “When You Grow, Uganda Prospers.” The more interesting question is whether the economics behind that promise can be seen and measured. Consider a maize farmer in Rakai. He has land, a crop to grow and potentially a…
Africa has sunshine, wind, forests, minerals, agricultural land and one of the world’s youngest populations. It also has an expanding pipeline of opportunities in renewable energy, climate smart agriculture, clean cooking, electric mobility and carbon markets. What it does not…
Kenya’s milk shortage has exposed a contradiction at the heart of East Africa’s food economy: one of the region’s largest dairy producers is struggling to meet consumer demand while its neighbour, Uganda, continues to produce enough milk to maintain a…
Kenya’s attempt to protect small businesses is exposing a bigger question for East Africa: can national economic interests coexist with the promise of a single regional market? Kenya’s crackdown on foreign nationals operating small businesses has moved from a political…
Uganda is exporting coffee at record levels. But with more than 95% of production still leaving the country as green beans, the next agribusiness opportunity may lie not in growing more coffee, but in capturing more value from what Uganda…
Starlink has entered Uganda’s internet market. But its biggest impact may not be in Kampala, where fibre and mobile broadband already compete aggressively, but in the places where building conventional infrastructure is hardest. For years, the debate around Starlink in…
A decade after losing the contest to lead Uganda’s petroleum regulator, Fred Kabanda is again at the centre of the succession debate as PAU prepares for a new Executive Director. Ten years ago, Fred Kabanda was among the leading contenders…
When Uber arrived in Kampala in June 2016, the idea of ordering a car or boda through a phone was still unfamiliar to many Ugandans. Ten years later, ride-hailing is no longer an experiment. It is part of how many…
Uganda’s oil has spent nearly two decades underground, in boardrooms, financing negotiations and political speeches. On Wednesday, it finally got a name. President Yoweri Museveni unveiled Pearl Sweet, the commercial identity under which crude from Uganda’s Lake Albert fields will…
Uganda needs an estimated US$28.1 billion for climate action by 2030, with government expecting 86 percent of the financing to come from private and international sources. But there is a wide gap between that ambition and the money currently reaching…
Finance Trust is preparing for life after Annet Nakawunde Mulindwa. The bank announced on September 1 that its long-serving Managing Director will leave in November 2026 to take up a new international leadership opportunity, ending nearly 15 years at the…
After decades of failed revival attempts, Uganda has put Kilembe Mines under a new ownership and production-sharing model. The government has a direct 15% stake and copper production is targeted for 2029. But the real test is no longer whether…
Nearly UGX 200 billion mobilised from more than 130,000 savers is an impressive start for NSSF’s Smartlife Flexi. But another number may matter even more: 97% of those savers are using mobile money. As NSSF renews its partnership with Airtel…
The disruption at Kenya’s main aviation gateway is a reminder of how closely Uganda remains tied to Nairobi. But it also highlights an opportunity: build Entebbe into a stronger, more reliable gateway so that Uganda has more options when regional…
For years, Kenya’s banking story was largely about the rise of KCB, Equity and Co-operative Bank. These institutions built powerful domestic franchises and then used Kenya as a launchpad into neighbouring markets. Now, some of Africa’s biggest banking groups are…
Pearl Bank Uganda has a good problem on its hands. Wendi, the digital wallet launched by the then PostBank Uganda, is growing at a pace that makes it increasingly difficult to regard it as simply another payments product. Balances held…
When thousands of runners descended on Kasese for the fifth Tusker Lite Rwenzori Marathon, they came to run. But the activity surrounding them told a much bigger story. Hotels received guests, restaurants served visitors, transport operators moved people around the…
For Uganda’s digital creators, data is not simply something they use to browse social media. It is part of the cost of producing their work. A TikTok creator needs data to upload videos and interact with an audience. A YouTuber…
Kenya Airways enters the next stage of its turnaround with an interesting contradiction. Passenger demand remains relatively strong and revenues are growing, but the airline is still struggling to translate that activity into profitability. In the first half of 2026,…
The Uganda Shilling has been under pressure, but Bank of Uganda (BOU) Governor Michael Atingi-Ego does not believe that automatically gives the central bank reason to intervene. The Shilling weakened by about 3.2 percent against the US dollar year on…
Uganda has spent years asking how farmers can produce more. The more important question now is whether they can capture more of the value created by what they produce. A coffee farmer may sell beans that are eventually processed, packaged…