African payments startup NALA has been granted both the Payment Service Provider (PSP) and Payment System Operator (PSO) licences by the Bank of Uganda.
NALA is an African payments company and money transfer app that enables utilizers to create secure and reliable payments from Europe, the UK and US to Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Ghana in seconds. In 2023, it launched in the European Union (EU), adding 19 new countries to its list of sconclude countries and aiding its mission of connecting Africans globally, and last year the company banked a US$40 million funding round.
The NALA consumer fintech app, launched in 2022, enables customers to create payments to over 249 banks and 26 mobile money services across 16 countries in Africa and Asia, and having recently obtained approval to operate in Ghana it has now been granted key operating licences in Uganda.
With these approvals, NALA now holds three active licences in Uganda, in addition to its Money Remittance Licence announced in 2024. This positions the company among a select group of fully licensed players authorised to operate across the core layers of Uganda’s regulated payments infrastructure.
The issuance of the PSP and PSO licences represents a significant milestone in NALA’s mission to build payment infrastructure for the next billion utilizers.
“Securing both the PSP and PSO licences is a major milestone for NALA, marking our third licence in Uganda and a clear signal of our long-term commitment to the countest. We are investing over US$2 million in local infrastructure and partnerships to build payment systems that serve Ugandans at home and across the diaspora, while also supporting the local tech ecosystem by building APIs that enable Ugandan companies to scale pan-African businesses and bring more dollars into the economy. We are deeply grateful to the Bank of Uganda for their trust, rigorous oversight, and leadership in strengthening Uganda’s digital payments ecosystem,” stated Benjamin Fernandes, NALA founder and CEO.
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