A fintech company called NALA just got the green light from Uganda's central bank, picking up two key payments licenses. This gives them three total approvals in the country now, putting them in a small club of operators allowed to work deep inside the national payment system under official oversight. Founder and CEO Benjamin Fernandes called it a major regulatory step for the company, which plans to drop over two million dollars into local tech infrastructure and partnerships.
These new permits let NALA handle secure instant payments for regular people, businesses, and banks, focusing on stuff like merchant services and moving money across borders. The whole setup is meant to make diaspora remittances cheaper and faster, aiming to pull more foreign currency into Uganda and hook up local companies with global networks. They also run a separate B2B platform named Rafiki, used by big international players like MoneyGram.
Originally launched a few years back, NALA connects users in the US, UK, and Europe to financial institutions in Africa and Asia. Beyond this latest win in Uganda, the firm already holds a bunch of other licenses from central banks across several African markets, Europe, and the United States, all part of a bigger plan to expand its regulated cross-border finance services everywhere.
These new permits let NALA handle secure instant payments for regular people, businesses, and banks, focusing on stuff like merchant services and moving money across borders. The whole setup is meant to make diaspora remittances cheaper and faster, aiming to pull more foreign currency into Uganda and hook up local companies with global networks. They also run a separate B2B platform named Rafiki, used by big international players like MoneyGram.
Originally launched a few years back, NALA connects users in the US, UK, and Europe to financial institutions in Africa and Asia. Beyond this latest win in Uganda, the firm already holds a bunch of other licenses from central banks across several African markets, Europe, and the United States, all part of a bigger plan to expand its regulated cross-border finance services everywhere.
