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Partnership born from a landmark leadership visit to Huawei’s global headquarters in Shenzhen commits both organisations to a shared vision of Bank 5.0 innovation, data-driven banking and expanding access to financial services for all Ugandans and Africans.
Shanghai, China | NEWS CORRESPONDENT | Uganda’s Centenary Rural Development Group and Huawei Technologies (Uganda) Company Limited have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), establishing a strategic partnership to accelerate the digital transformation of the Group and its subsidiaries.
The partnership is the direct result of a high-level benchmark visit undertaken in April 2026, when the governance and executive leadership of Centenary Group and its subsidiary companies travelled to Huawei’s global headquarters in Shenzhen. The delegation met with Huawei’s Global Digital Finance leadership, toured technology innovation centres and saw firsthand the systems reshaping banking in markets across Asia, Africa, and beyond. The eight priorities underpinning the MoU were identified and agreed upon during that visit; making this a partnership shaped by direct experience, not assembled at a desk.
The MoU defines eight areas of cooperation. At its core are three strategic priorities: building intelligent, AI-driven banking systems; securing the Group’s technology infrastructure against evolving cyber threats; and modernising Centenary’s data centre and application stack to support growth at scale.
The remaining pillars cover human capital development, co-innovation, and joint research; ensuring the partnership creates lasting capability inside Centenary, not just technology dependency on the outside. Together, they map a staged progression from foundational digitisation through to full digital transformation, with Huawei as the Group’s technology partner at each milestone. In Centenary Group’s ambition, this is the Bank 5.0 journey — a model of banking in which artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure and real-time data intelligence are embedded into every layer of how a bank operates, not layered on top of legacy systems
Officials said that the signing marks the most consequential technology commitment in Centenary Group’s four-decade history, one rooted not in technology for its own sake but in a conviction that digital transformation, done right, changes livelihoods.
Centenary Bank, the Group’s flagship banking subsidiary serves over four million customers, the majority of whom live and work in rural and peri-urban communities across Uganda. For these customers, this partnership carries direct, tangible significance. Modern digital platforms, smarter branch networks, and AI-powered services will mean faster access to credit, more responsive support, and financial products designed around their lives. For the smallholder farmer, the market trader, and the micro-entrepreneur, this partnership is a commitment to serve them better, wherever they are.
Significance for Uganda and Key Stakeholders
The MoU is directly aligned with Uganda’s National Development Plan IV and the Digital Transformation Roadmap, which together chart the country’s course toward a digitally enabled economy and with the National Financial Inclusion Strategy, which places accessible digital financial services at the heart of that agenda.
Centenary Group’s Tier 3 Data Centre in Masaka anchors a growing digital infrastructure footprint that positions Uganda to attract further investment in the digital economy, develop high-value technology skills and strengthen its standing as a regional technology hub.
For the Group’s shareholders, development partners, and community stakeholders, this MoU is a decisive commitment to long-term relevance and resilience grounded, as always, in Centenary Group’s founding mission to provide financial services to the rural and less privileged in a sustainable, values-driven manner.
Prof. John Ddumba-Ssentamu, Executive Chairman, Centenary Rural Development Group Limited said partnerships have always been at the heart of how Centenary Group has grown and this is the most significant we have signed in a generation. He noted that Huawei brings global depth and Centenary brings local mission and deep community trust.
“Together, we are building something that will matter to millions of Africans who deserve the kind of digital & financial inclusion this partnership will make possible. What we witnessed in Shanghai confirmed something we already knew: AI cannot be treated as software you install and walk away from. It has to become the way an institution thinks and operates. That is the transformation Centenary Group is now committed to building,” he said.
Fabian Kasi, Managing Director, Centenary Bank said banking in Uganda is changing faster than at any point in the bank’s forty-year history. He noted that customers expect more, faster credit decisions, smarter services, and a bank that anticipates their needs rather than waiting for them to walk through the door. “This partnership gives Centenary Bank the technology foundation to deliver exactly that. For our four million customers and the next eight million, this is a defining moment,” he said.
Meanwhile Dr. Grace Ssekakubo, Chief Executive Officer, Centenary Technology Services Limited said Centenary Technology Services exists to make the Group’s technology ambitions a reality, and this MoU gives them direct access to Huawei’s global expertise in AI, data governance and enterprise modernisation at precisely the moment when the company is building the shared services backbone that will serve the entire Group for decades.
Zhang Hao, Country Managing Director, Huawei Uganda said Africa’s financial services sector is among the most dynamic in the world and Uganda is at its leading edge. “Centenary Group’s four-decade commitment to reaching customers that formal banking has historically underserved is a mission that Huawei deeply admires and wants to amplify. We bring experience across more than 5,600 financial institutions in 80 countries and we intend to put every lesson we have learned to work here,” Hao noted.
