Centenary Group, MicroPay Uganda Unite to Drive Uganda’s Next Phase of Digital Transformation
Corporate editorUpdated 1 day Ago6 Mins read219
Uganda’s digital transformation agenda received a significant boost today as Centenary Group, through its technology subsidiary Centenary Technology Services (Cente-Tech), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MicroPay Uganda, launching a strategic partnership aimed at expanding access to education, healthcare and insurance through innovative digital solutions.
The signing ceremony, held at Mapeera House in Kampala, brought together leaders from both organizations to formalize a collaboration that seeks to bridge financial and technological gaps affecting millions of Ugandans. Rather than being viewed as another corporate partnership, the agreement represents a shared vision of using technology to remove barriers that have long prevented individuals, families, schools and healthcare providers from accessing essential services conveniently and affordably.
A Shared Vision for Inclusive Growth
For decades, Centenary Group has built its reputation on extending financial services to communities traditionally underserved by mainstream banking. Through Centenary Technology Services (Cente-Tech), the Group is now accelerating that mission by embracing digital innovation as the next frontier of financial inclusion.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, Prof. John Ddumba-Ssentamu, Executive Chairman of Centenary Group, described the partnership as a strategic step towards delivering inclusive digital solutions that improve the lives of Ugandans. He noted that MicroPay Uganda has established itself as a trusted technology partner whose capabilities complement Centenary Group’s ambitions to expand digital access to essential services across the country.
He emphasized that the collaboration is built on shared values of innovation, reliability, and customer-centric service delivery. By bringing together Centenary Group’s extensive reach and trusted financial ecosystem with MicroPay Uganda’s proven expertise in digital payments and financial technology, the partnership creates a strong platform for delivering practical solutions in education financing, healthcare access, insurance services, and digital financial inclusion.
Prof. Ddumba-Ssentamu further reflected on Centenary’s longstanding commitment to serving communities that have traditionally been underserved.
“Centenary’s story has always been about the people other institutions overlooked. We took banking to the market vendor, to the smallholder farmer and to the family saving a little at a time in a trading centre far from any branch. That is the legacy entrusted to us: meaningful inclusion, carried all the way to the last mile.”
He noted that today’s partnership represents a natural evolution of that legacy, leveraging technology and strategic collaboration to ensure that financial inclusion extends beyond banking into everyday services that improve the quality of life for individuals, families, institutions, and businesses.
Reimagining Education Financing
Education remains one of the largest financial commitments for many Ugandan households. School fee payments often place significant pressure on families, particularly those relying on seasonal or informal incomes
The partnership seeks to address this challenge by developing digital solutions that allow parents and guardians to save gradually towards school fees, make payments in instalments, and potentially qualify for financing based on their payment history. Schools are also expected to benefit through improved visibility of payment collections and cash flow management.
These innovations could help reduce administrative burdens for educational institutions while making school fee payments more predictable and manageable for families.
Bringing Healthcare Closer to Communities
Healthcare access continues to present challenges for many communities, particularly those located far from urban centres.
Through this collaboration, the partners intend to leverage digital technology together with extensive agent networks to bring healthcare services closer to patients. The initiative seeks to reduce barriers associated with distance, payments and service accessibility, enabling more people to obtain essential healthcare without unnecessary delays or travel costs.
The emphasis is not merely on digitising payments but on improving the overall patient experience through more convenient access to healthcare services.
Expanding Digital Insurance
Insurance penetration in Uganda remains relatively low despite growing awareness of its importance in protecting households and businesses from financial shocks.
Recognizing this opportunity, the partnership will also focus on digitizing insurance services by simplifying access to policies, introducing more flexible premium payment options, and improving claims processing.
The objective is to make insurance products more accessible, transparent and dependable for ordinary families who have traditionally found insurance difficult to access or understand.
Addressing Uganda's Most Pressing Digital Service Gaps
Providing further insight into the partnership’s strategic direction, Peter Kahiigi, Chief Technology Officer at Centenary Technology Services (Cente-Tech), explained that the collaboration between Centenary Group and MicroPay Uganda has been intentionally designed to address three critical pain points affecting millions of Ugandans: school fees payments, healthcare, and insurance.
According to Kahiigi, these sectors continue to present significant financial and operational challenges for households and institutions alike. Families often struggle to raise school fees in time for academic terms, many citizens encounter barriers to accessing quality healthcare, while insurance uptake remains relatively low despite its importance in protecting households and businesses against unexpected financial shocks.
“The partnership between MicroPay Uganda and Centenary Bank is targeting three pain point areas that are currently affecting the market: school fees payments, health, and insurance.”
He explained that by combining Centenary Group’s trusted financial ecosystem with MicroPay Uganda’s innovative digital payment technologies, the partnership seeks to develop practical, customer-centred solutions that simplify payments, improve service delivery, and increase accessibility across these essential sectors.
Kahiigi further noted that technology should not merely digitise existing processes but solve real-life challenges faced by individuals, families, schools, healthcare providers, insurers, and businesses. Through integrated digital platforms, the partnership aims to make essential services more affordable, convenient, and accessible while advancing Uganda’s broader digital transformation agenda.
His remarks reinforced the central theme of the signing ceremony—that innovation delivers its greatest value when it directly addresses the everyday needs of citizens and creates measurable social and economic impact.
A Partnership Built on Complementary Strengths
For MicroPay Uganda, the Memorandum of Understanding represents another important milestone in its mission to advance digital financial inclusion.
Speaking on behalf of the company, Dr. Ndyareeba Grace Stuart, Chief Executive Officer of MicroPay Uganda, emphasized that meaningful financial inclusion can only be achieved through purposeful collaboration.
With more than twelve years of experience in digital payments and licensing by the Bank of Uganda as both a Payment Service Provider (PSP) and Payment System Operator (PSO), MicroPay brings proven expertise in developing secure and innovative digital payment solutions. Combined with Centenary Group’s trusted community presence and extensive reach, the partnership creates a platform capable of delivering significant impact.
Dr. Ndyareeba noted that the collaboration reflects both organizations’ commitment to extending financial inclusion to the last mile while supporting national efforts to increase access to financial services for Uganda’s largely unbanked population.
Collaboration as the New Currency of Innovation
The strategic significance of the partnership was further underscored by Dr. Aduwo Jennifer, Chairperson of the Board of Directors at MicroPay Uganda, who described collaboration as the defining characteristic of success in today’s digital economy.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, Dr. Aduwo observed that technology is transforming every aspect of modern life, fundamentally changing how people access financial services, education, healthcare, and insurance. She noted that nations increasingly compete on the strength of their digital ecosystems and their ability to harness innovation to improve the lives of citizens.
“We live in an era where technology is shaping every area of our lives. The digital economy defines how nations compete and prosper. No single institution possesses all the expertise. Progress belongs to those who collaborate.”
She explained that the partnership between Centenary Group and MicroPay Uganda reflects this shared understanding—that sustainable innovation is achieved by combining complementary strengths rather than working in isolation.
According to Dr. Aduwo, the collaboration goes beyond introducing new digital products. It represents a shared commitment to advancing financial inclusion, promoting economic empowerment, and contributing to Uganda’s national development agenda by making essential services more accessible, efficient, and inclusive.
Her remarks reinforced a central message that resonated throughout the ceremony: that meaningful transformation is driven not only by technology itself, but by strategic partnerships capable of delivering solutions with lasting social and economic impact.
Looking Beyond Uganda
Although the immediate focus is Uganda, the ambitions of the partnership extend further.
Centenary Group already maintains a presence in Malawi, creating opportunities for successful digital solutions developed in Uganda to be introduced in other markets as the Group expands its regional footprint. This positions the collaboration not simply as a national initiative but as a model with potential for wider regional adoption.
Measuring Success by Impact
Throughout the ceremony, both organizations emphasized that the true success of the partnership will not be measured by the signing of documents but by tangible improvements in people’s lives.
Whether parents can pay school fees more conveniently, patients access healthcare more easily, or insurance claims are processed more efficiently, the partnership ultimately seeks to demonstrate how technology can solve practical challenges affecting everyday Ugandans.
As Prof. Ddumba observed, partnerships are proven not at signing ceremonies but through the experiences of the people they are intended to serve.
Driving Uganda's Digital Future
The collaboration between Centenary Group and MicroPay Uganda comes at a time when Uganda is accelerating digital transformation across public and private sectors. Increasing mobile connectivity, growing digital payment adoption, and expanding financial technology innovations continue to reshape how citizens access services and conduct business.
By combining trusted financial institutions with innovative technology platforms, partnerships such as this demonstrate how collaboration can accelerate inclusive development while ensuring that technology serves communities rather than leaving them behind.
For Centenary Group and MicroPay Uganda, the Memorandum of Understanding marks the beginning of a journey that extends beyond financial services. It is a shared commitment to harness technology, innovation and strategic partnerships to improve access to education, healthcare and insurance three sectors that remain central to Uganda’s social and economic development.
If successfully implemented, today’s agreement could become a defining example of how collaborative innovation delivers meaningful financial inclusion and transforms lives across Uganda.
“Progress belongs to those who collaborate.” Dr. Aduwo Jennifer
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