The Bank of Uganda has been locked in a heated debate with Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) over new financial regulations. But according to the central bank, these rules are meant to expand financial inclusion and help ordinary Ugandans build stronger credit histories.
David Kalyango, the Executive Director of Supervision at the Bank of Uganda, explained the vision: ensuring that every Ugandan, no matter their type of work, can access credit to grow businesses, boost investments, and drive development.
He was speaking at the first Credit Data, Referencing and Innovation Symposium, organised by the Credit Reference Bureaus Association of Uganda under the theme: “Strengthening and Scaling Uganda’s Credit Ecosystem through Data, Innovation and Partnerships.”
Traditionally, a person’s ability to get a loan depended heavily on collateral like land or property, something many Ugandans don’t have. While platforms such as SACCOs, mobile money and online banking have widened access to small loans, bigger loans remain out of reach for many borrowers.
Kalyango says this is why the central bank wants to tap into data technologies to assess creditworthiness more accurately. The new policies and laws being introduced by the government and Parliament, including the Micro-Finance Deposit-Taking Institutions (Registered Societies) Regulations of 2023, are designed to support this shift.
Under the new tiered system, large SACCOs with more than 1.5 million Shillings in voluntary savings and at least 500 million in institutional capital will now be licensed by the Bank of Uganda. Smaller SACCOs will fall under the Ministry of Finance. With this change, SACCOs will, for the first time, be able to access information from Credit Reference Bureaus, just like banks and microfinance deposit-taking institutions.
The Financial Institution Credit Reference Bureau Regulations of 2022 expanded credit information sharing beyond traditional players like banks. The system now includes SACCOs, money lenders, retailers, telecom-related lenders and many other credit providers.
By the end of September this year, 31 supervised financial institutions were actively using credit bureau services through 837 branches nationwide. Another 40 Tier 4 microfinance institutions had also been onboarded.
The regulations also allow third parties, such as employers, retailers and specific government funds, to access credit reports, but only with proof of the borrower’s consent. By September 2025, 435 such entities had requested credit information, showing growing reliance on data-driven decision-making.
Kalyango says this broader participation is helping create richer borrower profiles, enabling lenders to set fairer interest rates, reduce over-indebtedness and improve transparency about a borrower’s total obligations.
Uganda is now moving towards “full-file reporting,” which includes both positive and negative credit data from a wide range of lenders. The aim is to make it possible for farmers, traders, boda boda operators, refugees, women-owned businesses and young people to prove their creditworthiness through trusted data.
To get there, regulators are focused on onboarding more semi-formal lenders into the credit data system, enforcing mandatory credit checks for every loan, including small ones, and linking government programs to formal credit channels.
The National Identification Number (NIN) is becoming central in accessing financial services, including loans. Kalyango says linking every loan to a verified national ID smoothens the customer-verification process and reduces onboarding costs. Other data sources being explored include mobile money activity, digital credit records and group savings information, especially to close gender gaps in borrowing.
On data safety, he emphasised that all financial institutions must register with the Personal Data Protection Office and ensure privacy standards are embedded in their systems.
Sharing experience from Kenya, Jared Gatenga, the CEO of the Credit Information Sharing Association of Kenya, said his country learnt the hard way in the 1980s and 1990s when many institutions collapsed due to non-performing loans and poor information sharing.
According to him, borrowers today want better interest rates, faster loan processing and flexible collateral requirements, and the best way to achieve all this is through strong information sharing.
He said Kenya’s own credit information association, formed in 2009 and later relaunched, includes banks, microfinance institutions and SACCOs, both regulated and unregulated. The model has strengthened the country’s financial sector and reduced default rates.
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