Agency banking network in Uganda: abstract illustration
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Interswitch plugs Housing Finance Bank into Uganda’s agent network

Interswitch East Africa has added Housing Finance Bank to its Quickteller agent network in Uganda. The commercial and regulatory logic of agency banking partnerships.


On 4 November 2026, Interswitch East Africa and Housing Finance Bank (HFB) launched a partnership adding the bank to Quickteller’s agency banking network in Uganda. HFB customers can now deposit, withdraw with a debit card at point-of-sale terminals and check balances through participating agents.

The numbers

HFB has about 22 branches. Quickteller’s network has about 23,000 agents. The pilot processed more than UGX49bn (about US$12.1m), according to HFB’s chief operating officer, Robert Kusiima; the bank did not disclose the pilot’s length or customer count. Bank of Uganda figures cited by TechCabal show agent banking transactions rose 76.1% to UGX29.4 trillion in 2025.

Renting reach

The commercial logic is simple: a mid-sized bank buys distribution it could not afford to build. The legal logic is more involved. Agency banking arrangements sit under Bank of Uganda’s agent banking rules, which make the bank responsible for its agents’ conduct. Contracts between the bank, the network operator and individual agents therefore carry the weight of liquidity management, fraud allocation, data protection and customer complaints.

For Nigerian readers the model is familiar from OPay and Moniepoint. The difference in Uganda is that a third-party network operator, not the bank, owns the agent relationship, which puts the network contract at the centre of the risk allocation.

What is not public

Commercial terms and advisers to either party were not disclosed. This is a commercial partnership rather than a transaction, so it is not entered on the tracker.

Source: TechCabal, 6 November 2026.


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