Tanzania-born remittance startup NALA has announced that it has received Payment Service Provider (PSP) and Payment System Operator (PSO) licences from the Bank of Uganda, in addition to its existing Money Remittance licence.
The new approvals position NALA among a select group of companies fully licensed across the core layers of Uganda’s regulated payments infrastructure. This regulatory milestone enables the company to expand its capabilities and deepen its impact across consumer and business payment services.
Announcing this feat, NALA founder Benjamin Fernandes wrote,
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“Today, I’m excited to announce we have received Payment Service Provider (PSP) and Payment System Operator (PSO) licences from the Central Bank of Uganda, alongside our existing Money Remittance licence.
“We’re focused on building open, compliant, technology-first rails that help Ugandan businesses plug into global commerce and help the diaspora move money home faster and more transparently”.
With the licences in place, NALA is building:
• Global and diaspora accounts for consumers.
• Collection and payout services for global businesses through Rafiki.com.
• Real-time cross-border payment solutions.
• Trade payment flows into and out of Uganda, directly connected to global payment networks.
NALA acknowledged the Bank of Uganda for its rigorous oversight and leadership in fostering a secure, innovative, and future-ready payments ecosystem. The company says its focus remains on building open, compliant, and technology-first payment rails that allow Ugandan businesses to plug into global commerce, while enabling the diaspora to send money home faster, more transparently, and at lower cost.
Globally, Africans lose an estimated $8 billion annually to remittance fees, with 7–8% of transaction value lost to costs. This challenge inspired the founding of NALA in 2021, starting in Africa, currently the most expensive continent for cross-border money transfers.
Since then, the company has expanded into Asia and other emerging markets, which collectively account for about 45% of global remittance flows. From inception, NALA has prioritised two core goals: reducing the cost of cross-border transfers and increasing transaction reliability.
By partnering with governments and securing regulatory licences, the company has been able to develop innovative products that enable faster, safer, and more affordable cross-border payments.
Founded by Benjamin Fernandes, NALA has recorded significant growth since its relaunch in 2022, scaling from $0 to $24 million in revenue, achieving profitability once, and building a strong competitive moat through its integrated B2B infrastructure platform, Rafiki. The platform powers stablecoin-enabled payments across the US, UK, EU, Africa, and Asia.
Rafiki operates as a single API that allows global businesses to make payments into Africa. It serves as the backbone of NALA’s consumer fintech app and its B2B payments offering, helping global companies trade more efficiently with African markets while improving reliability across payment flows. Today, NALA’s team spans 18 countries, with operational hubs in London, Nairobi, and Dakar.
In June 2024, NALA raised $40M series A to build B2B payments platform. CEO Benjamin Fernandes stated that the capital injection, which follows a $10 million seed in 2022, will fuel the company’s global growth plans that involve scaling its remittance business to serve the Asian and Latin America markets.
NALA combines deep local market knowledge with global expertise, driven by a mission to build payment infrastructure that delivers real and lasting impact across emerging markets.