What is driving the growing appetite among Ugandans to save?
No matter where you are, people have needs and life goals.
Ugandans are no different; they just want proper, secure, and regulated options. With over 850,000 members, we don’t view them as mere accounts; we view them as habits. By automating the process of clarifying goals and acting on saving intentions, we are helping Ugandans transform saving into a seamless habit.
Historically, people have been saving rather than investing, particularly in regulated products.
What transformed this behaviour for our case is automation and linking investments to personal goals.
Last year alone, we attained half a million members. A significant portion of them went on to refer friends and family because of the structured plans we offer.
Does this also explain the explosion of investment schemes in Uganda?
In the past, collective investments were heavily manual, making them slow and difficult to access.
Today, technology has flipped the script. By partnering with telcos like MTN, we allow everyday Ugandans to start investing with just Shs10,000 via a simple click on their phones.
Combined with a growing shift in retirement planning, the democratisation of tech has made unit trusts accessible to the masses.
Should someone worry about the yields, or be sure what yields will be accrued before investing?
It depends on the asset. Generally, there are two types of assets: those with debt-like features and those with equity-like features.
With debt-like assets, you lend money and get paid interest. For example: treasury bills, bonds, and fixed deposits.
With equity-like assets, you invest in an underlying asset and reap the profit from its increased value when you sell it. For example: land.
Now, the bond market is the largest asset class in the world, and in Uganda, it is the largest regulated asset class. When investing in bonds, yields are market-based and no entity controls them. They fluctuate based on the economy and can sometimes be 9 percent, 10 percent, or 15 percent.
Therefore, with debt-like instruments (like fixed bonds), you can lock in a known yield, making it easier to plan your returns.
But with equity-like assets, yields are variable and market-driven.
Therefore, investors should focus less on predicting the exact equity yields and more on understanding the market environment and the underlying asset’s long-term value.
How can someone actually execute this?
My core philosophy is simple: invest consistently regardless of market timing. It does not matter whether current yields are 9 percent, 10 percent, or 20 percent.
The goal is to keep investing and accumulating those returns. Waiting to invest until yields reach a specific high level is rarely a prudent strategy.
Your primary benchmark should be whether the return beats inflation. If it does, it is a win, regardless of the exact percentage. If you wait out the market, and conditions stay flat for the next three years, what happens to your money?
What are your growth ambitions in Investment Management and FinTech, and how will that growth shape the financial services sector?
As players, we are committed to complying with sector regulations, and our numbers reflect healthy sector growth as a whole. We grew from half a million to over 850,000 members.
Reaching 1 million in the next 12 months is highly achievable because our focus is on impact.
When we succeed, we help children get an education, parents retire comfortably, and couples get married on their own terms. As a sector, there is a lot of untapped potential for growth and that means our work is cut out.
Are you pursuing this alone, or working with key market players?
We’ve built excellent partnerships. We are already working with wonderful partners like MTN, and we are in extensive discussions with Airtel to further expand our reach.
By distributing our products through channels like MTN, we successfully expanded our reach to thousands of customers.
One of your key messages during the AGM was repeated saving. Is this feasible to cope with consistently?
Consistency and disciplined habits are the true drivers of long-term wealth, far more than raw income levels. Today, this is highly feasible. Digital tools make it easier for families to meet financial goals regardless of their income.
This is why we continue to advocate for goal-based investment services, which allow Ugandans to start building wealth for emergencies, child education, and retirement with as little as Shs 10,000. It is possible in our environment, and that is the mindset we champion-that yes, we can
Shifting focus to you as a sector player: How has the economic environment impacted your portfolio’s performance?
We have had yet another fantastic year, building on three consecutive years of double-digit returns across all funds.
Operating in a country with relatively low, single-digit inflation has certainly been a tailwind, but this growth is a direct result of our team’s strategic execution and plans we have put together.
We have seen significant upward trends in money market and bond yields, accompanied by strong asset accumulation and market expansion.
Our money market fund averaged about 14 percent and our bond fund averaged 16 percent. On the equity side, our domestic equity fund had a holding period return of 32 percent, and the East Africa regional equity fund delivered approximately 45 percent. We are very thankful for the trust our clients place in us to build their futures.
Do your funds mix different asset classes?
No, we keep our asset classes distinct to ensure clear risk and return profiles. Our money market fund handles short-term instruments, while our bond fund is geared toward medium-to-long-term instruments. We also run a domestic equity fund and an East Africa regional equity fund.
Can investors build a diversified structure across these portfolios?
Absolutely. Combining these distinct funds creates a diverse portfolio with different drivers of returns. We’ve made this incredibly easy; clients can structure their portfolios and invest toward specific objectives using our digital workflows in just a few clicks.
Where are you in your expansion beyond Uganda?
We are currently operating in both Uganda and Kenya. We looked closely at Nigeria, but high local capital requirements made it a significant barrier, so we have put that market on hold for now.
However, we are actively eyeing other regions. Our overarching mission drives us: we won’t stop until we have directly helped at least 20 million people across Africa achieve financial freedom in the next 10 years.