Uganda Business News | Uganda Business News 4

Provision releases and currency gains drive Bank of Uganda’s doubled surplus

The head office of the Bank of Uganda in Kampala

Bank of Uganda’s reported surplus doubled to Shs1.3tn ($365.5mn), but underlying earnings fell once provisions and currency gains are removed

Navi Pillay’s Nobel prize is a vote of confidence in international law

Navi Pillay, in a burgundy jacket and glasses, speaks at a lectern and gestures with one hand, in front of banners for the Africa Group for Justice and Accountability.

Navi Pillay, the first South African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, took the lessons of apartheid to Rwanda, the ICC and the UN, writes Frans Viljoen

Airtel Money skips African exchanges for London

An Airtel Uganda promotional poster at a hotel in Kampala in 2023

Airtel Money, valued at $7bn, listed in London while Uganda, its second-largest market, has an exchange worth less than the company itself

Mobile money value reaches 72 per cent of 2025 total

Customers at a roadside kiosk in Uganda covered in yellow MTN Mobile Money signs, one woman showing a phone to the attendant while a man stands nearby.

Mobile money transactions in Uganda were worth Shs263tn in seven months, and first-half value rose 32.5 per cent, up from 31.2 per cent a year earlier

Museveni rejects selling dollar reserves to prop up the shilling

President Yoweri Museveni speaking at a podium bearing the presidential seal during the Independence Day celebration, wearing a white shirt and a maroon, white and gold sash.

Uganda’s reserves stood at $6.52bn in August, nearly double February 2024, as Museveni urges fewer imports instead of dollar sales to support the shilling.

Shilling weakens further as MPs ask why reserves are not used

Close-up of a Ugandan 50,000-shilling banknote with an orange round-cut gemstone resting on it, other notes blurred behind

The shilling closed at Shs4,085.71 on Thursday. Traders expect further losses as MPs ask why the central bank has not used its reserves

Bank lending grows at its fastest rate since 2015

Single-storey building with a red roof and signs for Centenary Bank's CenteAgent and dfcu Agent, plus Airtel Money and other agent notices by the door.

Bank lending in Uganda grew at its fastest annual rate since 2015 in August, led by foreign-currency loans, according to Bank of Uganda data

Foreign buying of Ugandan government debt fades after a record 2025

A stack of Ugandan shilling banknotes—50,000, 20,000, 10,000, and 5,000—arranged in a currency counting machine.

Non-residents hold $2.7bn of Ugandan government debt after buying $2.2bn in 2025, but quarterly purchases fell to $25.5mn in April to June

Uganda’s trade deficit hits a record as mineral imports more than double

Four men working in an open-pit mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Uganda’s goods trade deficit reached a record $817mn in August as imports of mineral products excluding petroleum more than doubled, Bank of Uganda figures show

World Bank cuts Uganda’s growth forecast as regional outlook improves

The World Bank Group headquarters in Washington D.C.

Uganda’s budget assumes faster growth than the World Bank forecasts, with oil receipts depending partly on the timing of production