Uganda’s capital markets are at a pivotal stage of transformation, shaped by ongoing reforms aimed at deepening liquidity, expanding investor participation, and strengthening market infrastructure. In this exclusive interview with The Highflyer Report’s Senior Business Journalist Edwin Muhumuza, the Chief Executive Officer of the Capital Markets Authority, Josephine Okui Ossiya, provides a comprehensive perspective on the sector’s progress, emerging opportunities, and the strategic priorities guiding its next phase of growth.
On Market Liquidity and Depth
Edwin Muhumuza: The revised Capital Markets Master Plan and the 2025–2030 strategic plan outline numerous reforms. Which three key milestones should investors realistically expect to see achieved over the next 12–24 months, and how will Capital Markets Authority (CMA) measure their success?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: I would point to three milestones that investors should hold us to account on.
First, the operationalisation of Uganda’s inaugural sovereign Sukuk. CMA has been deeply involved in the regulatory and stakeholder preparations for this issuance, and its successful launch would mark Uganda’s entry into the global Islamic capital markets; opening access to over USD 4 trillion Islamic liquidity pool that has historically been unavailable to our market. Success here is measurable: a completed, fully subscribed issuance. This will be able to demonstrate the role that capital markets can play in mobilizing capital for the 10-fold growth strategy.
Second, the expansion Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) Assets under management (AUM) to over Ugx 12 trillion in savings. The momentum is real. The target is achievable. We measure this monthly through licensed fund manager reporting, and CMA publishes these figures publicly. It is a direct proxy for the breadth of retail participation in regulated markets.
Third, at least one new product issuance; whether a Capital Markets Master Plan (REIT), an infrastructure bond, or a green bond; being approved and listed. Our regulatory work on REITs has been in existence since 2018 and the ESG Disclosure Guidelines are substantively complete. The next step is a live transaction. Success is straightforward: a product approved, listed, and trading.
These three milestones are not aspirational statements in a planning document. They are commitments that our Strategic Plan and our workplans are resourced to deliver.
Edwin Muhumuza: Liquidity and turnover remain challenges for the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). What targeted measures are being put in place to boost trading activity, attract new listings, and bring in both local and international institutional investors?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: Thin equity market liquidity is one of the issues that keeps me awake at night, and I will not pretend otherwise. A market where price discovery is difficult and exit is uncertain does not attract the institutional investors we need to scale. Our response operates on three fronts simultaneously.
On supply; more listings. We cannot have a liquid market with eleven domestic listed companies in a USD 63 billion economy. The updated Offer of Securities Regulations published in 2025 simplify listing requirements while maintaining investor protection standards. We are running targeted engagements with business owners and founders, as well as state-owned enterprises, making the case for capital markets as a financing option. The CMA Board itself is being mobilised to engage the boards of various entities. We need that peer-to-peer board-level conversation.
On demand; broadening the investor base. We have over 235,000 SCD account holders, but active trading participation remains far below that number. Our sustained investor education campaigns, the toll-free investor line, and digital access through the USE Easy Portal are all oriented at converting account holders into active investors. Regionally, we are advancing cross-border investor participation through East Africa Securities Regulatory Authority (EASRA)’s harmonisation frameworks.
On structure; we are studying market-making mechanisms actively. Several exchanges on the continent have introduced frameworks that require designated liquidity providers for listed securities. This is a model we are evaluating for the Ugandan context, and it will feature in our market development work over the next strategic planning period.
Edwin Muhumuza: Are there planned regulatory or structural changes over the next two years aimed specifically at improving liquidity and broadening participation?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: Yes, on both counts.
On the regulatory side, the comprehensive suite of regulations published in 2025; the Licensing and Approval Regulations, the Conduct of Business Regulations, and the Offer of Securities Regulations; collectively modernise the framework within which market participants operate. These are not incremental adjustments; they represent a generational update of Uganda’s capital markets legal architecture. Implementation is now the priority, and CMA’s supervision function is resourced to enforce the new standards.
On the structural side, we are in active dialogue with the exchanges on introduction of innovative products such as depository receipts and REITS. Product diversification can draw in more investors, hence drive liquidity.
Edwin Muhumuza: Is CMA considering incentives for IPOs, cross-listings, or market makers to strengthen market depth?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: We are, and we are approaching this collaboratively, because the most impactful incentives sit partly outside CMA’s direct regulatory perimeter.
On IPO incentives, we are engaging the Ministry of Finance on the tax treatment of capital markets instruments. The case we are making is straightforward: listing should be at least fiscally neutral; and ideally fiscally advantaged; compared to remaining private. Several jurisdictions offer listing premium deductions, capital gains exemptions on secondary market trades, or stamp duty exemptions on share transfers. We are advocating for comparable provisions in Uganda’s tax framework.
On cross-listings, the harmonization efforts of the East African Securities Regulatory Authorities provides a framework for cross-border recognition of prospectuses across EAC member states. The barrier has been operational rather than legal; settlement cycles, CSD interoperability, and foreign exchange risk mechanisms. EASRA’s current technical work programme is squarely focused on resolving these friction points. CMA Uganda is an active participant in that work.
On market makers, as I noted, this is under active evaluation. The architecture is not complex; the question is whether the incentive structure is right for the current stage of Uganda’s market development. We expect to have a position on this within the current strategic planning period.
On Product Innovation & Capital Formation
Edwin Muhumuza: With new instruments like infrastructure bonds, green bonds, REITs, and potentially Islamic finance products being introduced, how does CMA ensure innovation does not compromise investor protection?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: Our philosophy on this is clear: protection and innovation are not in tension. They are mutually reinforcing. Investors who trust the market participate more actively. Innovations that are well-supervised become mainstream; those that are unsupervised become liabilities.
Our practical architecture for managing this has several components.
The Regulatory Sandbox is perhaps the most visible. It gives innovators a supervised environment to test new capital markets products under CMA’s direct oversight, without the full weight of standard licensing requirements from day one. We learn alongside innovators and shape appropriate frameworks before they are formalised. The Sandbox Rules were officially launched in 2025, and we are open for applications.
For new asset classes; Sukuk, REITs, green bonds; we are not improvising. We have studied the regulatory architectures of comparable jurisdictions, engaged with AAOIFI standards on Islamic finance, and developed locally appropriate frameworks before approving any product. The draft Sukuk regulatory framework, for example, includes specific provisions on Shari’ah governance, SPV requirements, and disclosure standards tailored to the East African Community (EAC) legal context.
Investor education is also a protection mechanism. A retail investor who understands that Sukuk returns are asset-linked and not guaranteed in the same way as a fixed-rate bond makes better investment decisions. Our education programme is therefore deliberately product-specific as new instruments are introduced.
Edwin Muhumuza: What specific new products or issuances should investors anticipate within the next 12–18 months?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: I am confident about the first sovereign Sukuk. The Government of Uganda’s inaugural Sukuk issuance is the most significant single transaction in Uganda’s capital markets pipeline. It will diversify the government’s financing base, open Uganda’s bond market to Islamic institutional investors from the Gulf and Southeast Asia, and establish a benchmark for future corporate and infrastructure Sukuk. The transaction is at an advanced stage of execution.
Project Okusevinga is another one I am confident about: a government-led investment platform to be launched by the Bank of Uganda together with the Ministry of Finance to help ordinary Ugandans invest in government securities (like treasury bills and bonds). CMA granted the Okusevinga money market fund unit trust schemes a license in 2025.
Edwin Muhumuza: Which regulatory challenges still slow the pace of product innovation in Uganda’s capital markets?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: Tax neutrality remains the most persistent friction point. When a new financial instrument attracts a different and higher tax treatment than economically equivalent instruments, innovation is penalised. We have been making the case to the Ministry of Finance, and we are seeing movement, but full tax neutrality across our new instrument classes is work in progress.
Capital markets awareness among potential issuers is a genuine constraint. Many Ugandan business owners and founders do not regard capital markets as a viable financing option. They default to bank credit or retained earnings. This is a market culture challenge as much as a regulatory one, and it requires sustained engagement; which CMA is doing through our business founder outreach, the Deal Flow Facility partnerships and investor education campaigns.
Regional legal harmonisation moves at the pace of multilateral negotiation, which is not always the pace we would choose. Some product innovations; particularly cross-border instruments; depend on regulatory equivalence across EAC Partner States. EASRA is working on this, but it requires political will and legislative action in multiple jurisdictions simultaneously.
On Institutional Participation & Risk Management
Edwin Muhumuza: Large institutional investors, including pension and insurance funds, dominate the market. How is CMA’s revised plan promoting broader participation among retail and regional investors while managing concentration risk?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: On the retail participation and managing of concentration risk, CIS is our primary vehicle for broadening participation. The over 220,000 funded accounts today represent real progress, but the addressable market among Uganda’s working population is orders of magnitude larger. Digital access through mobile platforms, the toll-free investor line, and targeted campaigns for women, youth, and rural communities are our distribution channels. The goal within this strategic plan period is to make a CIS account as normal a financial product for a Ugandan household as a mobile money wallet.
Regionally, the EASRA framework creates the basis for cross-border retail participation; an East African investor being able to access a Ugandan-listed fund or bond through their home country infrastructure. The architecture for this is being built.
Edwin Muhumuza: Are there new guidelines or incentives for institutions to diversify their participation in the market?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: CMA works closely with sister regulators such as URBRA, which oversees pension fund investments, to ensure that the investment guidelines for pension funds are calibrated to support market development while safeguarding member benefits.
On incentives, the conversation with institutional investors is ultimately about risk-adjusted returns and regulatory comfort. CMA’s role is to provide the regulatory framework and the information infrastructure; including mandatory disclosure requirements for new instruments; that allows institutions to make informed investment decisions with confidence.
For insurance companies specifically, the Insurance Regulatory Authority and CMA will be working together to align investment guidelines with capital markets development priorities. This institutional coordination is important; we cannot develop the supply of investable products without ensuring the demand side is correspondingly prepared.
On Regulatory Capacity & Implementation
Edwin Muhumuza: Historical delays in implementation have been linked to capacity and funding constraints. What structural or operational changes has CMA introduced to ensure the Master Plan delivers tangible results rather than remaining a policy document?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: The observation is fair, and I will address it directly. A plan without implementation infrastructure is a wish list. We are determined that the Strategic Plan 2025/26–2029/30 is different, for three structural reasons.
First, the plan is operationalised through annual work plans that are monitored quarterly. CMA achieved a 96% workplan score in FY 2024/25. This is not a vanity metric; it reflects a culture of delivery that has been institutionalised into our performance management system from the CEO down.
Second, CMA’s budget for FY 2025/26 is UGX 9.35 billion, which is fully funded by the Government and supplemented by non-tax revenue from market activity. We have been deliberate about aligning resource allocation with strategic priorities; market development activities, investor education, and regulatory modernisation; all funded at levels that make delivery credible. Where specific market development initiatives require external technical assistance, we have been active in engaging development partners such as FSD Africa.
Third, governance accountability. The CMA Board receives the Master Plan implementation update every quarter. This board-level accountability is real, not ceremonial. It creates institutional pressure for delivery that complements management-level performance management.
I acknowledge that external dependencies; tax reforms, legislative amendments, government entity decisions on listing; are outside CMA’s direct control. Our approach is to be transparent about what is within our control and what requires whole-of-government engagement, and to be persistent and evidence-based in making the case for the latter.
On Investor Protection & Market Confidence
Edwin Muhumuza: How well-prepared is the Investor Compensation Fund to handle major brokerage failures or market shocks?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: The Investor Compensation Fund is a critical component of the safety architecture of Uganda’s capital markets. The Fund exists to provide a defined level of compensation to investors in the event that a licensed broker or dealer is unable to meet its obligations. Its adequacy is a function of two things: the size of the fund relative to potential claims, and the speed with which claims can be assessed and paid. We are in a continuous process of strengthening both dimensions.
Edwin Muhumuza: What measures are currently being taken to strengthen disclosure enforcement and enhance surveillance against insider trading?
Josephine Okui Ossiya: Disclosure and surveillance are the foundations of market integrity, and both have received significant investment in our regulatory modernisation programme. On disclosure enforcement, the 2025 regulatory package; particularly the Conduct of Business has mandatory, standardised disclosure requirements with clear timelines and penalties for non-compliance. CMA’s Market Supervision department conducts both planned and ad hoc compliance reviews.
On insider trading surveillance, CMA operates a market monitoring function that analyses trading patterns for anomalies consistent with information asymmetry; to detect as well as deter market abuse by insiders. Beyond our own surveillance capacity, we are also building the information-sharing infrastructure with regional regulators through EASRA. Insider trading in a cross-listed security does not respect national borders, and our regulatory response cannot either. The EASRA MOU framework for cross-border information sharing is an important complement to domestic surveillance capability.
I want to add one thing on culture. Rules and surveillance matter, but a market where participants regard integrity as a competitive advantage; where issuers and intermediaries understand that their long-term franchise value depends on honest dealing; is ultimately more effective than any surveillance system. CMA’s public education and our engagement with the USE-listed companies and their boards is partly motivated by this culture-building objective.
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