Why Uganda Must Rethink How Trusts Are Registered
Over the past four decades, a generation of entrepreneurs, professionals, farmers, and property owners has built significant wealth. As this generation retires or passes on, the challenge facing families is no longer accumulation, but continuity. Yet Uganda’s framework for trusts remains institutionally anchored in a system designed for land administration rather than economic governance. That mismatch is no longer theoretical. It is now economically costly. Trusts have outgrown land-centred regulation Historically, trusts in Uganda were closely associated with land—family holdings, Mailo interests, and protection of property for widows and minors. Although trusts are incorporated under the Trustees Incorporation Act, their…

