On the 29th of February 2024, the Central Bank suspended licenses for Payments Service Provide (PSP) and Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) of Pivot payments , citing several issues in Operations, and gaps in governance.
“Our board was not fully constituted, and capital where our trade volume had superseeded the capital reserves. As a locally founded and managed institution, this has set us back significantly.” Princess Shamirah Kimbugwe, Founder and Director of Pivot payments.
“Having worked alongside the BOU team on corrective measures, today the 16th Of december, I am happy to inform our Partners, customers and the general public, that the BOU found it satisfactory to reinstate the licenses on the 4th of December effective immediately.” Ms Shamirah Kimbugwe noted.
She said “We want to appreciate the National Payments Services (NPS) team at Bank of Uganda that while they had the prerogative to be antagonistic, they chose to be corrective and collaborative. The engagements have been a learning curve for both institutions and I believe the industry at large. The regulator’s unwavering risk-averse approach to the industry is aimed at consumer protection at the same time ensuring that institutions build sustainable and profitable businesses. It’s evident from their engagements that benchmarking on sister institutions within the region is fundamental to their objective to building an vibrant Payments industry to attract investment.”
The Financial technology space is relatively young with many of the players experiencing strict regulation for the first time. This means oversights and mistakes are bound to happen. The most important factor is the regulator’s willingness to guide.
“The company had registered over 100,000 customers and cummulatively traded over UGX 40Bn, with more than 1.4M transactions since its inception. These tough experiences are what justifies resilience, refinement, agile work nature and creativity. Being a Payments Service provider and E-money issuer, we want to inform the Partners, vendors, customers and the general public that we are ready to resume business as a stronger, more resilient, transparent and creative company. We will continue to provide payments (collections and disbursements) Wallet services for safe keeping of money and consolidate our UAE corridor as the only company that focuses on providing tailor made financial solutions for our young ladies and gentlemen serving in the middle east, as well as serving the business class (SME) here in Uganda.” She remarked.
