Coverage
🇺🇬 Payments in Uganda
Every payment method and gateway Orchestrapay has integrated for Uganda.
Sources: Bank of Uganda and mobile-money operator disclosures, 2024–2025.
How Uganda pays
Uganda pays by mobile money, led by MTN MoMo and Airtel Money, which together cover the overwhelming majority of digital transactions. Wallets are the default for everything from market stalls to online checkout and bill payment; cards (Visa, Mastercard) remain a thinner, mostly-urban rail. The sector sits under the Bank of Uganda's National Payment Systems Act, which brought wallet operators and PSPs into a formal licensing regime.
The currency is the Ugandan shilling (UGX). For a global merchant the essentials are accepting both leading wallets, shilling collection with settlement in your base currency, FX, and Bank of Uganda licensing — carried by our local partners. Uganda is part of the East African Community corridor, so coverage here complements Kenya and Tanzania for merchants scaling across the region.
Why merchants run on us here
Both leading wallets
We accept MTN MoMo and Airtel Money — the rails that carry Uganda's everyday commerce.
Cards where they count
Visa and Mastercard with routing and retries for the urban and cross-border segment.
Shilling settlement & FX
Collect in UGX and settle in your base currency, with FX and Bank of Uganda licensing handled locally.
One region, one stack
The same integration spans Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania for merchants scaling across East Africa.
Payment methods
Cards
Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Discover
Diners Club
JCB
UnionPayDigital wallets
PayPalMobile money
Orange Money
M-Pesa
Airtel MoneyExpress checkout
Apple Pay
Google PayGateways
OnafriqAirtelPayPal
StripeStripe (Enterprise)
Adyen
Unlimit
Worldpay
Checkout.com
Authorize.net
MPGS
Cybersource
Airwallex
Braintree
CommerceHub
Fiserve
NMI
Nuvei
OrbitalPayPal Commerce
PesapalBuilt for enterprise
Everything it takes to run payments in Uganda
Local payment methods are only half the job. We carry the operational weight — acquiring, settlement, FX, licensing and reconciliation — so you can treat Uganda like any other market in your stack.
One integration, every local method
Connect once and reach every card scheme, wallet, bank rail and installment provider in Uganda through a single API — no separate contract or integration per provider.
Local acquiring, higher approvals
We route to local acquirers and retry failed payments across alternate rails, so domestic cards and wallets authorize at local rates instead of being declined as cross-border traffic.
Settlement, FX & repatriation
Collect in the Ugandan shilling (UGX) and settle in your base currency. We handle the FX conversion and the local rules for moving funds out of the country — the part most global merchants underestimate.
Licensing handled locally
Process through our locally licensed partner entities. You launch without standing up a local entity or chasing a payments license of your own.
Payouts & reconciliation
Pay out to sellers and process refunds on the same rails you collect on, and reconcile every flow — pay-in, payout, refund — in one ledger, in local or base currency.
Fraud, disputes & compliance
Real-time screening, chargeback and dispute handling, and KYC/AML that matches local regulator expectations — built in, not bolted on.
Ready to launch in Uganda?
Talk to our payments team about going live in Uganda — coverage, local acquiring, settlement and timelines for your business.