Regulatory Disclosures

This page discloses Ustawi's ("Ustawi") corporate and regulatory status as a technology vendor, and clarifies the distinction between Ustawi's role and the regulatory status of the institutions that license our software.

Ustawi is a software technology vendor. Ustawi provides a multi-tenant SaaS platform that microfinance institutions, SACCOs, VICOBA/VSLA networks, employers, and digital lenders use to operate their own lending, savings, and collections business. Ustawi is not itself a bank, deposit-taking microfinance institution, SACCO, or licensed lender, and does not itself extend credit, accept deposits, or hold client loan funds.

Ustawi is a pure technology vendor and does not itself hold, or require, a Bank of Tanzania (BOT) microfinance license, deposit-taking authorization, or Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) license — Ustawi does not extend credit, accept deposits, or act as an insurer in its own right (see Section 2). Tenant institutions (MFIs, SACCOs, VICOBA/community groups, employers, digital lenders) hold their own Bank of Tanzania licenses under the Microfinance Act 2018's four-tier system: Tier 1 deposit-taking MFIs, Tier 2 non-deposit-taking MFIs/digital lenders, Tier 3 SACCOs, and Tier 4 community microfinance groups (including many VICOBAs). Ustawi provides the software tooling — PAR/classification reports, STR export formats — that supports each tenant's own regulatory reporting, but does not itself hold a license and does not file on a tenant's behalf unless separately contracted. This reflects Ustawi's own assessment of its status as a pure software vendor, is subject to final confirmation by legal counsel, and is not a determination by the Bank of Tanzania.

Each tenant institution using Ustawi is independently responsible for holding whatever license or registration its own business model requires under Tanzanian law (e.g. a BOT microfinance license, SACCO registration, or other applicable authorization). Using the Ustawi platform does not confer, imply, or substitute for any such license. Ustawi may support onboarding checks (e.g. verifying a tenant's registration status as part of commercial due diligence) but does not warrant or certify a tenant's regulatory compliance.

Ustawi's compliance and reporting tooling — PAR/classification/provisioning reports, recovery-notice-gated repossession workflows, statutory-clock complaints handling, AML screening and goAML export — is built with Bank of Tanzania microfinance regulatory alignment as an explicit product-design goal. This is a statement of design intent and tooling capability, not a claim that Ustawi itself is licensed, audited, or approved by BOT. See /legal/aml-kyc-compliance-statement for the AML-specific detail.

Ustawi registers as a data controller/processor with the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) as required under the Personal Data Protection Act, 2022. Registration particulars are indicative demo details to be finalised before launch.

Where a tenant enables the credit-life/asset insurance app, Ustawi provides software tooling for policy issuance, premium posting, and claims tracking on behalf of the tenant's own arrangement with a licensed insurer or as an appointed agent thereof; Ustawi is not itself an insurer. Any insurance product is underwritten by a licensed insurer regulated by the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA); Ustawi's role is limited to software tooling and it does not underwrite, price, or bear insurance risk in its own right.

Questions about this disclosure, or about a specific tenant's licensing status, should be directed to /contact (for Ustawi's own status) or to the tenant institution directly (for that institution's licensing) — see /legal/complaints-and-dispute-resolution for the general complaints process.

This page will be updated promptly whenever Ustawi's corporate or regulatory status changes materially.