By KT Reporter
The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has officially launched the Regulatory Sandbox Rules, marking a significant milestone in advancing financial technology innovation and deepening financial inclusion within Uganda’s capital markets.
The announcement was made during the 7th Annual Financial Technology Service Providers Association (FITSPA) Conference, where CMA unveiled the framework that will allow innovators to test new financial technologies in a controlled environment.
According to Josephine Okui Ossiya, the Chief Executive Officer of CMA, the sandbox is designed to strike a balance between promoting innovation and safeguarding investor protection and market integrity.
“The Regulatory Sandbox provides a safe, supervised environment for fintech innovators to test new products and business models under CMA’s oversight,” Ossiya said. “It enables direct engagement with the regulator, helps shape future policy, and builds investor confidence through transparent experimentation.”
By the time an innovation exits the sandbox and is cleared for the market, Ossiya explained, it will have undergone rigorous testing to ensure it is safe, reliable, and ready for consumer use. The model mirrors that of the Bank of Uganda’s Regulatory Sandbox, which allows emerging payment systems to operate under close supervision before full rollout.
Ossiya added that this initiative supports Uganda’s 10-Fold Growth Strategy, a government plan to expand GDP from USD 63 billion to USD 500 billion by 2040. The sandbox will play a vital role in this ambition by fostering technology-driven capital mobilisation and long-term investment.
Through the sandbox, CMA hopes to unlock new opportunities in product innovation, enhanced service delivery, advanced advisory and analytics, and new ways of connecting investors with capital.
The ultimate goal, Ossiya said, is to help innovators complete the full innovation cycle from ideation to commercialisation, a stage where many Ugandan ideas have traditionally stalled due to regulatory uncertainty, limited financing, or lack of market validation.
Allison Kwikiriza, the Legal and Board Affairs Manager at CMA, noted that the financial innovation landscape evolves too quickly for traditional regulation to keep pace.
Kwikiriza emphasised that CMA’s long-term vision includes attracting more international capital to meet Uganda’s financing needs in both the public and private sectors. Strengthening the fintech ecosystem, she noted, will ensure that innovators can access resources and partnerships to scale sustainably.
Grace Semakula, the CEO of SBG Securities, highlighted the crucial role of fintechs in redefining Uganda’s financial landscape. Semakula noted that fintechs have an opportunity to position themselves strategically within existing markets by using technology as a key driver of growth. She observed that while the equities market has experienced some stagnation, the private sector pipeline remains strong, signalling room for expansion.
The CMA and other stakeholders continue working to grow Uganda’s capital markets, which have seen mixed progress in recent years. While collective investment schemes and unit trusts have expanded rapidly, the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) remains underutilised, with only 17 listed companies, of which just nine are indigenous and the rest are cross-listed from Kenya’s Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Recent innovations, including the segmentation of the stock market to attract small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are expected to broaden participation.
According to Bob Musinguzi, the Head of Depository at the Uganda Securities Exchange, one of the USE’s key objectives is to become the preferred platform for investment and capital sourcing in Uganda.
He pointed to USE Edaala, a new unquoted securities platform designed for companies not yet eligible for public listing.
“The platform connects companies to professional investors for equity and debt funding, allows private companies with multiple shareholders to trade shares, and leverages our trading and depository systems for efficient portfolio management,” Musinguzi explained.
Satyajit Trumela, Regional Director of Advisory at Grant Thornton Uganda, called for renewed thinking among regulators and innovators amid shifting investor priorities. He noted that investors are increasingly gravitating toward traditional businesses undergoing digital transformation, viewing them as more stable and lower-risk compared to untested tech startups.
“A traditional business that’s digitally transforming itself presents a lower-risk investment opportunity,” Trumela said. “Today’s investors are prioritising sustainable companies with established market share over speculative ventures.”
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