Old Mutual launches drive to pull more Ugandans into unit trusts

KAMPALA, Uganda — Old Mutual Investment Group Uganda has launched a campaign to draw more salaried workers, entrepreneurs and small-business owners into unit trusts, part of a bid to convert the country’s swelling pool of savers into long-term investors.

The drive, running under the line “Your Money Is Serious Business,” is designed to demystify unit trusts and press more Ugandans to treat investing as a routine financial habit rather than an activity reserved for experts or the wealthy. The company said it would target established professionals, business owners and experienced investors seeking structured ways to grow their money while keeping control over it.

The launch comes in one of Uganda’s fastest-expanding financial markets. Collective investment scheme assets reached UGX 5.66 trillion by December 2025, a 47.3% year-on-year increase from UGX 3.84 trillion a year earlier, according to the Capital Markets Authority (CMA). More than 180,000 Ugandans now invest through collective investment schemes, a base that has widened sharply as digital platforms and rising financial literacy pull in first-time investors.

Old Mutual Investment Group (OMIG) sits at the centre of that boom. Its unit trust assets have grown roughly fivefold in five years, from about Shs600 billion in 2021 to Shs3.36 trillion by the end of 2025, a rise of about 40% in the past year alone, worth some $910m. The firm holds close to two-thirds of Uganda’s collective investment market, and its Money Market Fund recorded more than 200% growth in new investments as businesses and individuals sought flexible short-term options. The campaign is, in effect, a move to extend that lead by turning more of Uganda’s savers into unit holders.

Unit trusts pool money from many investors into a diversified portfolio run by professional managers, giving individuals access to fund management and spread risk without picking and monitoring each asset themselves. OMIG allows customers to start from UGX 100,000 and to open accounts, deposit, withdraw and track performance through its Wealth App and online portal.

The push extends a pitch the company has leaned on as Uganda’s market has grown despite a long history of savers losing money to fraudulent and unlicensed operators — a record that has turned regulation into the industry’s main selling point.

“Many Ugandans have lost money in the past to so many unscrupulous investment schemes,” Zaccheus Kisesi, managing director of Old Mutual Investment Group Uganda, said at the company’s annual general meeting in June, crediting the Capital Markets Authority with restoring enough credibility for people to entrust their pension money and hard-earned savings to regulated funds. He pointed to a proliferation of savings circles and investment clubs, and to firms parking liquidity in unit trusts for treasury management, as forces behind the market’s expansion.

The campaign carries that message to ordinary savers. Kisesi said investing is “not reserved for a small group of financial experts or wealthy individuals” but a habit Ugandans can adopt gradually as they work toward their goals. Trust, he added, is built through governance, transparency, consistent service and the responsible management of customers’ funds, and savers should know they are dealing with a regulated institution.

OMIG’s unit trust range spans Money Market, Balanced, Dollar and Umbrella funds. The company said the campaign would also flag protection benefits — covering education, disability and life-related cover — available to qualifying investors who maintain or grow their balances.