Absa Uganda Managing Director, David Wandera
Uganda has climbed to third position in the 2025 Absa Africa Financial Markets Index, marking a major milestone in the country’s financial market development.
The index, compiled by Absa, assesses the strength and maturity of financial markets in 23 African countries, highlighting those with the most supportive environments for effective and efficient markets.
According to the latest report, Uganda’s overall score increased from 64 to 66 points. This places the country behind only South Africa, which leads with 86 points, and Mauritius with 76 points. Uganda’s rise reflects steady progress over time, having moved from 10th position in 2018 to fifth in 2021, fourth in 2022, and now third in 2025.
The index evaluates countries across several key areas, including market depth, access to foreign exchange, market transparency, tax and regulatory environment, capacity of local investors, macroeconomic opportunity, and the enforceability of financial contracts, collateral, and insolvency frameworks.
In 2025, Uganda recorded its strongest performance in the macroeconomic environment and transparency category, scoring 87 points. This placed Uganda second only to Botswana on the continent. In this category, Uganda outperformed South Africa and Mauritius, which scored 78 and 74 respectively. This strong showing was attributed to declining inflation and improvements in the country’s non-performing loans ratio during the previous year.
Uganda scored 67 points in access to foreign exchange, trailing South Africa by 20 points. In the market transparency, tax, and regulatory environment category, Mauritius led with 95 points, followed closely by South Africa at 91, while Uganda scored 76.
The report also noted that survey respondents from Uganda highlighted the implementation of, or plans to upgrade, central securities depositories to improve settlement systems and support increased market liquidity. Additionally, authorities in Uganda and Zambia are working with Frontclear to develop domestic interbank and money markets.
In terms of legal standards and enforceability, Uganda remained in fifth position with a score of 85 points, behind Mauritius and South Africa, which both scored 100. The report further noted that Tradeclear was launched in Uganda in June 2024, enabling repo transactions under the local GMRA and various derivative products under the standardized ISDA framework to be quoted on the platform and qualify for the Frontclear guarantee through the Framework Agreement.
Commenting on the performance, Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury Ramathan Ggoobi noted that Uganda is achieving strong growth even in an election year, a situation he described as uncommon. He emphasized that the country is ranked among the fastest-growing economies globally and is expected to maintain this momentum in the medium term. He attributed the progress to prudent macroeconomic management and sustained reforms, including expansion of nominal GDP, rising income per capita, and fully controlled inflation.
Ggoobi also praised the Uganda shilling as one of the most stable currencies in the region, noting that exports have reached $13.4 billion, while foreign direct investment, tourism receipts, and remittances have continued to grow steadily.
To further improve Uganda’s ranking and deepen financial markets, Ggoobi said the government remains committed to rebuilding capital markets to provide long-term debt and equity financing for SMEs, attract venture capital willing to take higher risks with less collateral, strengthen corporate governance, build local capacity, and further capitalize the Uganda Development Bank to meet growing demand for long-term financing.
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