KAMPALA | RedPepper Digital – The Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority (UMRA) has warned the public against doing business with unregistered money lending institutions.
UMRA is an autonomous government agency that supervises non-bank financial institutions (savings and credit cooperatives, village savings and loan associations, non-deposit-taking microfinance institutions, and money lenders).
UMRA Executive Director Edith Namuga said authorities had noticed a proliferation of illegal moneylenders across the country with the aim of extorting assets from citizens.
“It has come to the attention of the authorities that some unauthorized individuals are conducting money lending business in complete disregard of the provisions of the law. , it is prohibited to engage in money lending business without a license,” Namuga told reporters at the Uganda Media Center in Kampala on Monday.
She warned the public to always ask for a certificate of registration before participating in any business that borrows money.
“The Authority would like to inform the public that the Tier 4 Microfinance Institutions and Money Lenders Act 2016 has come into force. “We are concerned that the number of unlicensed money lenders operating in disregard of the provisions of the Act is rapidly increasing across the country,” he added.
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According to Namuga, there are only 950 microfinance and money lending institutions licensed to trade in the money lending business in the country.
Mr Namuga disclosed that UMRA would soon spread its wings to inland areas such as Arua, Mbarara, Jinja and Mbale to raise awareness.
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