Billions Sent Home, But to Whose Benefit? The Remittance Riddle Facing Ugandan Banks With remittance inflows reaching USD 1.4 billion, banks are sharpening their focus on this channel, not just as a revenue stream, but as a catalyst for economic transformation.

Every month, tens of thousands of Ugandan households receive life-sustaining  remittances from family members living abroad.  These funds, estimated at over USD 1.4 billion annually according to the Bank of Uganda figures, are crucial for household consumption, school fees, health care, and small-scale investments. Willy Mutenza, a UK-based Ugandan entrepreneur argues that despite their economic weight, the remittance market in Africa is dominated and tightly controlled by an ecosystem of foreign players such as Western Union, WorldRemit, and MoneyGram. While they provide scale, their profits are largely repatriated, limiting domestic reinvestment and innovation. These operators, while efficient in speed and…