the ministry of finance planning and economic development, the ministry of justice and constitutional affairs, the uganda communications commission, the capital markets authority, the uganda bankers association and the technical staff from bank of uganda. in a special way we would like to thank the eac and the african development bank for the support provided under the eac - payment and settlements system integration project. the next steps after the stakeholders workshop will be as follows : to incorporate comments from the workshop. the draft bill will be submitted to parliament through the minister of finance planning and economic development for the enactment of the payment systems law followed by the president ’ s assent. bank of uganda will then operationalize the law. with these remarks, i wish the stakeholders interactive and fruitful deliberations.

bank of uganda keynote address read by mr. elliot mwebya, acting deputy governor, bank of uganda, to the national payment systems bill stakeholder consultative workshop golf course hotel october 1, 2018 the ps / st, mofped, officials from the eac secretariat, representatives from the mofped, other government agencies, supervised financial institutions [ sfis ], the mobile network operators ( mnos ) and payment system providers ( psps ), the chief executive ’ s and representatives from the partner regulatory authorities ( ucc, cma, use, ira, umra to mention but a few ), the ed uganda bankers association, all stakeholders present in your respective capacities, ladies and gentlemen. it is a great pleasure to welcome you all to this very important stakeholder consultation event on the long awaited national payment systems law. as we have explained in the past, both the bank of uganda act 2000 and the financial institution act 2004 have limitations on the regulation and supervision of payment systems in uganda. section 4 of the bank of uganda act which stipulates the mandate of bank of uganda is silent on the regulation and supervision of payment systems. similarly the provisions in the financial institutions act 2004 pose limitations on the regulation and supervision of payment systems since the act applies to deposit - taking institutions only. recognizing the benefits accruing from the recent technological developments in the financial sector, and being mindful of the need not to stifle innovations, bank of uganda put in place interim oversight measures to promote the development of payment systems in uganda. these measures were benched - marked with the regional central banks and included : the issuance of no objection letters to some commercial banks to partner with the telecommunication companies to provide mobile money services since 2009. issuance of mobile money guidelines in 2013. setting up of a technical working group constituted by technical staff from bank of uganda and the uganda communications commission. signing of the memorandum of understanding between the two regulatory authorities ( bou and ucc ), in 2016 to clarify the respective roles and responsibilities. however, we have now made a significant progress towards the development of the legal framework for the regulation of payment systems in uganda. cabinet in december 2017 approved the policy and principles for national payment systems bill which covers ; the regulation of payment systems, payment service providers and payment instruments. following approval by cabinet, the ministry of finance planning and economic development requested the office of the attorney general to draft the bill. before us today is the first draft of the nps bill