Introduction Uganda is a mineral rich country with vast deposits of gold, uranium, limestone, marble, graphite, iron, copper, and cobalt, among others. Whereas its mining sector once accounted for 30% of the country’s export earnings in the 1950’s and 1960’s, today the sector’s contribution is about 0.8%. This decline has been attributed to a weak legislative framework to award, protect and enforce mineral rights; a significant informal mining sector; a paucity of foreign investors; environmental degradation; and human rights abuses.

Uganda faced its first COVID-19 lockdown (“the lockdown”) on 18th March 2020 and it was only until 24th January 2022 that all aspects of the economy were fully “re-opened”. In the post lockdown era, it has become increasingly common in cases filed in Uganda courts, for parties to rely on the lockdown as a frustrating event that discharges them from their responsibilities under contracts. This article analyses the viability of this argument with specific focus on leases/tenancy agreements.

Could Uganda Revenue Authority's general demand for customers account details from commercial banks have been handled better?

On 18 July 2022, the Ugandan High Court issued a landmark decision on the liability for loss suffered due to digital bank fraud in the case of Aida Atiku versus Centenary Rural Development Bank Limited, (the defendant/bank) Civil Suit No. 0754 of 2020. The case concerned an account holder with Centenary Bank who lost a substantial amount of the money that she had deposited in her account due to unauthorised transactions. The court was put to task to apportion liability for the loss suffered due to the unauthorised transactions.

The Head of State on the 2nd June 2022 assented to a number of amendments to the country’s tax regime. Some of these changes have far reaching ramifications to Foreign Investors, Tax Practitioners, and the Business Community generally. The changes shall take effect on the 1st July 2022. We set out below a summary of the amendments to the different tax laws.

Transacting online for work, school, banking, or pleasure, and therefore exchanging personal information, has never been more pronounced than today. Social distancing brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated reliance on the internet. As a result, cybercrime is a great threat and the encroachment to the right to privacy of information is heightened each day.

The Tax Amendment Bills, 2021 that were assented to by the President on 29th May 2021 came into force on 1st July 2021. The amendments are geared toward improving tax administration, reducing tax leakages, and enhancing revenues collected by the Tax Authority. The purpose of this Alert, as set out below, is to summarize the key provisions of the amendments and their potential effect on taxpayers.

The Court of Appeal has revisited and emphasized various aspects in regard to validity of mortgages, execution and attestation of mortgage deeds. Court emphasized obligations of both the mortgagor and mortgagee in that respect thus widening the scope of the mortgagee’s inquiry into the borrower’s constitutional documents to ascertain whether the relevant authorizations have been duly obtained. Moses J. Adriko SC of M/s MMAKS Advocates represented the Respondent (“the Bank”) in this matter.

The Court of Appeal of Uganda (the “Court”) has reasserted the unfettered right of an employer to terminate an employment relationship without a reason by either giving the employee notice or paying in lieu of notice. Timothy Masembe Kanyerezi and Alex Samson Ntale of M/s MMAKS Advocates represented Bank of Uganda (the “Bank”) in this matter. Whilst the Court dealt with various legal principles in the case, our legal alert is restricted to the question whether “termination” as distinct from “dismissal” requires a reason to be lawful which had remained in flux since the operationalization of the Industrial Court in 2014.

The Trademarks Regulations No.58 of 2012 (the Regulations) passed under the Trademarks Act No.17, 2010 (the Act) were recently amended by the Trademark (Amendment) Regulations No. 9 of 2021 (the Amendment). The Amendment is commendable as it bridges gaps in many practical aspects of the law. It brings changes to twenty-six (26) provisions of the Regulations with the most notable being operationalization of the Register of agents, introduction of an IP journal, and payment for extension of time.