KAMPALA, Uganda — 4 November 2026. The Bank of Uganda has announced that its Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and Automated Clearing House (ACH) services will be unavailable from 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, 5 November, until 9:00 a.m. on Monday, 9 November 2026, for a scheduled upgrade of national payments infrastructure.
The central bank's public notice dated 3 November instructs financial institutions, government departments, businesses and individuals to process time-sensitive transactions before the interruption. It says a separate public notice will confirm restoration. The announcement concerns two specific settlement systems, not an order closing every bank or disabling every digital payment method in Uganda.
When will Bank of Uganda's RTGS and ACH services close?
Both will be offline from 5:00 p.m. on 5 November until 9:00 a.m. on 9 November 2026. Interbank transfers and cheque clearing may be delayed. Customers should confirm banking cutoffs and alternative channels with their provider; the notice does not suspend every payment service.
Which payments will the interruption affect?
The two services operate behind many familiar banking transactions, but they do different jobs. RTGS is designed for settlement of individual, often high-value or time-critical interbank payments. In Uganda, it is also known as the Uganda National Interbank Settlement System (UNISS). ACH handles clearing of cheques and electronic funds transfers, including payment files that banks process in batches.
These distinctions are set out in the Bank of Uganda's national payment systems oversight framework, which describes both RTGS and ACH as systemically important services operated by the central bank. The framework explains that UNISS is used to settle obligations arising from other systems, including ACH.
During the announced closure, transactions requiring either RTGS or ACH will not be processed through those services. That could affect high-value interbank transfers, certain electronic funds transfers between banks, scheduled bulk salary files, direct debits and cheque clearing. The precise effect on an individual transaction depends on how a customer's bank routes and schedules it. New Vision's report similarly distinguishes immediate interbank settlement from ACH's batch-processing function.
The dates matter especially for Friday transactions
The shutdown starts Thursday evening, November 5, and continues throughout Friday, November 6, the weekend and into Monday morning. The planned restoration time is 9:00 a.m. on November 9, but the central bank has committed to announcing successful restoration separately. The bank has not promised that every payment submitted immediately afterwards will settle without a queue.
BANKING AND FINANCE
Bank of Uganda RTGS, ACH Closure: Payment Guide for November 5–9
Nov 4, 2026
Nov 4, 2026
8 min read
Published
Updated:
KAMPALA, Uganda — 4 November 2026. The Bank of Uganda has announced that its Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and Automated Clearing House (ACH) services will be unavailable from 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, 5 November, until 9:00 a.m. on Monday, 9 November 2026, for a scheduled upgrade of national payments infrastructure.
The central bank's public notice dated 3 November instructs financial institutions, government departments, businesses and individuals to process time-sensitive transactions before the interruption. It says a separate public notice will confirm restoration. The announcement concerns two specific settlement systems, not an order closing every bank or disabling every digital payment method in Uganda.
When will Bank of Uganda's RTGS and ACH services close?
Both will be offline from 5:00 p.m. on 5 November until 9:00 a.m. on 9 November 2026. Interbank transfers and cheque clearing may be delayed. Customers should confirm banking cutoffs and alternative channels with their provider; the notice does not suspend every payment service.
Which payments will the interruption affect?
The two services operate behind many familiar banking transactions, but they do different jobs. RTGS is designed for settlement of individual, often high-value or time-critical interbank payments. In Uganda, it is also known as the Uganda National Interbank Settlement System (UNISS). ACH handles clearing of cheques and electronic funds transfers, including payment files that banks process in batches.
These distinctions are set out in the Bank of Uganda's national payment systems oversight framework, which describes both RTGS and ACH as systemically important services operated by the central bank. The framework explains that UNISS is used to settle obligations arising from other systems, including ACH.
During the announced closure, transactions requiring either RTGS or ACH will not be processed through those services. That could affect high-value interbank transfers, certain electronic funds transfers between banks, scheduled bulk salary files, direct debits and cheque clearing. The precise effect on an individual transaction depends on how a customer's bank routes and schedules it. New Vision's report similarly distinguishes immediate interbank settlement from ACH's batch-processing function.
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Payment or service | What customers should expect |
RTGS high-value interbank transfers | The central-bank settlement route will be unavailable during the closure |
ACH electronic transfers and cheque clearing | Payments requiring ACH processing may wait until operations resume |
Bulk payroll or supplier payments through ACH | Businesses should confirm their banks' submission cutoffs and processing dates |
Mobile money, ATM, card and same-bank services | Availability is not guaranteed or universally suspended by the notice; check with the provider |
The dates matter especially for Friday transactions
The shutdown starts Thursday evening, November 5, and continues throughout Friday, November 6, the weekend and into Monday morning. The planned restoration time is 9:00 a.m. on November 9, but the central bank has committed to announcing successful restoration separately. The bank has not promised that every payment submitted immediately afterwards will settle without a queue.
For a company planning payroll on Friday, the practical risk is that an electronic payroll file requiring ACH processing may not settle on its expected date. A business preparing a high-value transfer to a supplier faces a similar scheduling issue if the chosen route depends on RTGS. A cheque deposited around the maintenance window may also have to wait for the relevant clearing service to reopen.
Reporting by CEO East Africa notes that the closure affects Friday's business day and identifies financial institutions, public bodies, businesses and individual customers as the groups exposed to delays. This is a planned maintenance period, not evidence that customer account balances have disappeared or that the entire banking system has failed.
What businesses and bank customers should do now
The first step is to review payment commitments due between Thursday afternoon and Monday morning. Employers should check salary deadlines; companies should identify supplier invoices, tax-related transfers and other obligations that need a specific settlement date. Customers receiving money from another bank should also ask when it can realistically arrive.
Before 5:00 p.m. on November 5, the Bank of Uganda advises users to make arrangements for time-sensitive payments. Banks may apply their own earlier cutoffs for initiating RTGS, ACH or bulk files, so the public closure time must not be treated as the last safe minute to submit a payment.
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Practical steps include:
Confirm the payment route. Ask whether the transaction is an RTGS transfer, ACH electronic funds transfer, cheque clearance or a separate service.
Check the bank's final submission time. Ensure the payment can be processed and settled before the relevant system closes, not merely entered in an app.
Tell affected recipients about potential delays. Employers, contractors and suppliers can reduce confusion by communicating any revised payment schedule in advance.
Confirm alternatives directly with the provider. Ask which channels are operating, their limits and charges, and whether the recipient can actually use them.
Keep the transaction reference. If a payment is pending after the upgrade, use the reference when asking the bank to trace or confirm it.
The Bank of Uganda's official LinkedIn announcement reiterates the start and restoration times. The full notice tells customers seeking guidance about alternatives to contact their own financial institutions.
Will mobile money, ATMs and card payments still work?
The official notice does not order a nationwide shutdown of mobile money, ATMs, debit cards, point-of-sale terminals or bank branches. It also does not certify that each of those channels will operate normally at every institution. Some services have separate processing infrastructure; others may depend on interbank settlement or on particular bank integrations.
Daily Monitor's November 4 report cites banking-industry sources expecting some internal bank transfers, mobile money, cash withdrawals and card payments to continue where their processing does not depend on the affected systems. That is a reported expectation, not a universal guarantee from the regulator. Customers should check their bank, mobile-money provider or merchant acquirer before relying on any alternative for a critical deadline.
Users should also be cautious of messages claiming that they must reveal a PIN, password or one-time code to restore payments. A scheduled system upgrade is not a reason to disclose account credentials to a caller or through an unfamiliar link. Official help should be requested through the institution's established contact channels.
Why Uganda is upgrading its national payments infrastructure
The Bank of Uganda says the planned work is intended to improve the efficiency, reliability, resilience and interoperability of its payment systems. It also links the upgrade to implementation of the East African Community Cross-Border Payment System Masterplan, which the region's central-bank governors approved to support safer and more efficient regional payment flows.
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The longer-term ambition matters for importers, exporters, banks and households whose payments cross borders. But the November maintenance window is not an announcement that a new regional payment service is already live for every customer, nor is it evidence that international transfer fees have been reduced. Those benefits would require subsequent implementation and operational results.
The regional context is visible in other African developments. XTRAfrica previously reported that DR Congo joined PAPSS and signed an EAC cross-border currency agreement, while separate coverage examined Nomba's financing for cross-border payment expansion and Visa Pay's consumer adoption campaign in the DRC. These are different initiatives, not services that the Bank of Uganda has designated as substitutes during its closure.
What to check when the systems reopen
The expected reopening is Monday, November 9, at 9:00 a.m. EAT. Customers and businesses should wait for the Bank of Uganda's restoration notice and any institution-specific processing updates. A bank may need to clear files submitted before the suspension or handle a backlog once the settlement infrastructure is available again.
Anyone with an urgent or disputed transfer should first contact the bank that accepted the instruction, providing the payment date, beneficiary details and transaction reference. The central bank's November 3 notice also lists +256 414 258441 for telephone enquiries, +256 393 000668 for WhatsApp and info@bou.or.ug for email.
The next verifiable milestone is not simply the arrival of Monday morning: it is the central bank's formal confirmation that the upgraded systems are operational and banks' subsequent guidance on pending transactions.
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