Uganda’s Exim Bank launches cross-border payment service as remittance costs stay high

KAMPALA, UGANDA – Exim Bank Uganda has launched an international money transfer service with global payments firm TerraPay. The move comes as sending money in and out of the East African country remains costly, despite rising remittance flows.

The service, Exim Global Pay, was unveiled in the capital, Kampala, on Wednesday. Exim Bank Uganda’s chief executive, Edward Kanyike, and TerraPay’s country manager, Samuel Muyingo, signed a memorandum of understanding at the event.

The bank says users can send money directly to bank accounts and mobile wallets in several countries, including Japan, India, China, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and the United Arab Emirates. Senders do not need to hold an account with Exim Bank.

The launch comes at a time of growing cross-border flows. Bank of Uganda data shows remittances into the country reached $2.5bn in 2025, about 3.8 percent of gross domestic product. Money leaving the country totalled $402m, with India, Kenya, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada among the main destinations.

Costs, however, remain high. The average cost of sending money to Uganda is about 8 percent, well above the 3 percent target set under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Speaking at the launch, Kanyike said that while technology had brought people closer together, moving money between countries had not kept pace.

“Why should sending and receiving money from whichever location still feel like such a complicated process?” he asked.

He said international transfers remained a challenge in terms of convenience, time and cost. “At Exim Bank, we believe that this experience can and should be better, and that is why we are gathered here today,” he said.

Kanyike pointed to a Uganda-based trader doing business overseas, a parent paying fees for a child studying abroad, and an entrepreneur seeking opportunities in foreign markets as the kinds of customers the service was meant for.

He said the bank wanted the service to become “a trusted choice for individuals and businesses seeking to move money beyond Uganda”.

Francis Kamya Muliro, the bank’s head of personal and business banking, said high charges, delays and security concerns had long made international transfers difficult for Ugandans.

“Sending and receiving money in Uganda is still a challenge,” he said. “It comes with unaffordable costs, delays and often concerns about security.”

Muliro said the service could be used to pay a sick relative’s medical bills, settle business obligations in countries such as Japan, China and Pakistan, or pay school fees for children studying in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and elsewhere.

He thanked the bank’s partners, customers and the regulator for their role in bringing the service to market.

TerraPay, which is headquartered in London, does not serve individual customers directly. It connects licensed institutions such as banks, mobile wallet providers and money transfer operators that send and receive payments.

“Our customers are the banks, like Exim Bank today, the mobile wallets and the money transfer operators,” Muyingo said. “So we are an enabler in between.”

He said customers had long complained about high fees, hidden charges and delays in getting money to relatives and business partners. The partnership, he said, was meant to address those problems.

“While we celebrate this launch today, it is the beginning of a longer journey,” he said. “Success is not an overnight feat.”

Willie Kanyeki, TerraPay’s vice president for Sub-Saharan Africa, said cross-border payments “should enable economic participation, not create friction around it”. He added that the partnership would help build closer links between local banks and global payment networks.

TerraPay says its network reaches more than 7.5 billion bank accounts in over 156 countries. The company first received approval from the Bank of Uganda to deliver international transfers into mobile wallets in Uganda in 2017.

Exim Bank Uganda has not published the fees or transfer limits for the new service.

The lender operates seven branches, 12 cash deposit machines and more than 9,500 agents through a shared agent banking platform. It is majority-owned by Exim Bank Tanzania, which holds a 65.1 percent stake. The Tanzanian lender entered the Ugandan market in 2016 when it bought a majority stake in the former Imperial Bank Uganda from the central bank.