CMA and Ministry of Finance officials with the winners of the awards
Financial market regulators are challenged to discourage young Ugandans from sports betting and ponzi schemes and invest in safer regulated businesses.
This is aimed at not only protecting them and their money, but also enable the country improve the savings levels and contribute to national development.
The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development says limited awareness and ineffective protection measures have led many youths into losing their money into Ponzis and sports betting as they seek to get reach quickly.
This was delivered by Moses Ogwapus, Commissioner Financial Services, at the 2025 Collective Investment Schemes Awards by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
“In our journey towards financial inclusion, we have unfortunately, seen an increase in dishonest acts especially numerous ponzi schemes that have cheated Ugandans out of their hard-earned money,” he said, adding “these unregulated schemes trick people who are unaware and damage the trust that we endure to create”.
Ogwapus noted that a lot of money was being spent nonproductive schemes for wick gains but also loses yet, small savings could lead to accumulation of savings.
“It’s not a saving, not an investment, but mere speculation that after placing a bet, you probably win and become a billionaire. There is a great opportunity for young men and women staking 1,000 or 5,000 shillings in anticipation that they will win, but they actually rarely win,” he said.
The betting business is designed in a such a way that determines how much will be won, how much the investors retains and how much will go to government revenue, according to Ogwapus.
“Not that sports betting is not regulated, but people should be directed to put their hard-earned money into safer and productive investments like CISs,” he said.
The 2025 CIS Awards, held under the theme “Innovate. Trust. Grow: Driving Financial Inclusion through Unit Trusts,” were intended to highlight the critical role Collective Investment Schemes play in expanding access to capital markets for individuals and businesses.
CMA said the theme reflected the commitment to expanding access to investment opportunities in the capital markets for all.
Josephine Okui Ossiya, the Chief Executive Officer, CMA said the focus of the authority was to access each Ugandan the chance to invest in a CIS because of its convenience and safety.
She said the regulatory framework was increasingly being reformed to achieve this, so as to grow the sector in terms of members of investors and the savings levels.
“This then means that everyone, irrespective of education level, location around the country, can access this service provides they can have 100,000 Shillings to open an account”.
As of end of March this year, the CIS market was worth 4.2 Trillion Shillings, handing grown from 2.8 trillion just a year before.
The number of fund accounts grew by 12.8 percent from 114,400 in December 2024 to 129,000 by the end of March.
“This is still a drop in the ocean, considering the population of Uganda (46 million people), we should be driving to have millions,” Ossiya said, but added that the growth figures were a show of public confidence and trust in the sector.
The event brought together various players from unit trust managers, trustees, investor resource persons.
The number of licensed entities under the CIS segment rose from nine to 12 fund managers between June 2024 and March 2025, while CIS Managers rose from six to eight.
Unit Trust Schemes were 22 up from 17, with the regulators of the market happy at the increasing numbers.
“The increase in competition is expected to lead to improved services, innovative products for investor convenience, as well as lower fees, making services more attractive and accessible,” said Protazio Begumisa, the CMA Board Chairman.
However, the challenge, according to him, remains the proliferation of unlicensed and unregulated investment schemes, which increase the risk to public savings and undermine the public confidence in the regulated services.
Committing to the continued improvement in regulation and protection of the market, Begumisa warned the public to only invest in licensed scheme.
He also urges the companies to invest in innovative products and make the services more understandable by the public.
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