Uganda needs central corporate register to improve ownership transparency

Lack of clarity over corporate ownership is a contributing factor in the annual $550m of illicit financial flows in the Ugandan economy, according to the report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI) and Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE).

Beneficial ownership (BO) transparency is being increasingly used globally to curb the use of anonymous companies to hide financial flows. But there is no central legal requirement to collect BO information for either companies created in Uganda, or foreign companies registered there. This handicaps the Ugandan government’s ability to track criminal actors and recover tax revenue, the report says.