Regulated
Bonus running
Can sell early
- Risk level
- High
- Risk-return
- Medium
- Start from
- €50
Referral link · capital at risk
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Watu Credit Uganda
Uganda
Watu Credit Uganda lends to motorbike riders and phone buyers in Uganda. Mintos investors lend it money and earn interest. Our memo scores it 45 out of 100, an E, and puts the chance it fails to pay within a year at 25% or more.
Key figures
- Average rate
- 13.18%
- average, not guaranteed
- Loan portfolio
- €9,633,663
- Start from
- €50
Capital at risk. The rate is agreed, not guaranteed: if a borrower defaults you can lose some or all of your money.
Would AI invest?
AI 45 LowOur AI gives this project 45 out of 100: Low. How the AI score works
Information, not personal investment advice. The AI score rates the documents the platform publishes, can be wrong, and does not predict returns.
AI review
AILender memo · Crowdinform
Watu Credit Uganda: how likely is it to fail to pay its lenders?
It lends to motorbike riders and phone buyers in Uganda, and investors on Mintos lend it the money. This memo asks one question: what is the chance it cannot pay them back over the next twelve months, and why.
THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. This memo was prepared with the help of AI from publicly available documents. It is general information for education only — not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold anything, and it does not take account of your circumstances. Figures may contain errors; check them against the original documents. Investing through P2P platforms can result in the loss of all money invested.
Our score
45/ 100
EOur lowest grade
ABCDE
at least 25%chance of failing to pay, next 12 months
1 in 4the same number, said the other way
Where it sits on our scale
0% — on our scale this lender carries a portfolio share of nothing at all. Two limits apply and the tighter wins: Uganda is a D country, which our country scale would put at up to 5%, but a company that has broken a financial promise to its banks is capped at zero. These are a convention of our scale, not a recommendation.
It earns money and it has a real cushion — but its own audited accounts say it has broken the promises it made to its lenders, and that is a different kind of problem from a thin year
Its scores across six questions add up to 45 out of 100 — the four figures below group them. On its own that would put the chance at about 1 in 12. We do not use that number: a broken financial promise is one of a short list of things that override the score entirely and set the answer to at least 1 in 4. Section 4 explains what was promised and what was broken. Each of the four figures below shows the odds as if that one thing were the only risk, which is why one of them can be worse than the answer itself.
💶 Earnings and cushionC
about 3.8%It made a profit in every year we can see, and the owners' money covers 30 of every 100 shillings of what it owns. Half of that, though, is a reserve the regulator forces it to hold against this loan book.
📉 Are its loans being repaid?E
about 26%It wrote off UGX 79.4bn of loans in 2025 — about 22 shillings in every 100 of the average book — and the charge for bad debts nearly tripled. It does count a loan as bad sooner than most lenders do, which makes its figures look worse than a like-for-like comparison.
🇺🇬 How risky is Uganda?D
about 12%It lends in shillings and owes three-quarters of its borrowings in dollars and euros. The shilling has been weak through 2026.
⚖️ Trust and other risksE
about 19%The owner publishes nothing and carries no rating. Lending to connected companies has moved to longer terms, though the total has not grown as a share of the owners' money. Almost all the borrowing falls due within a year.
It has broken financial promises to its lenders, and its auditors say so.At the end of 2025 it was in breach with Absa Bank Uganda, which had lent it UGX 36.2bn, with I&M Bank Uganda at UGX 2.1bn and with Exim Bank Uganda at UGX 1.0bn. The promises broken are collection ratios — the share of what is due that it must actually collect — and for two of the three there is a second test on its motorbike loans alone. For two of the three, Absa and Exim, the accounts record that no repayment has been demanded. For I&M they say nothing either way. That is forbearance, and it can be withdrawn.
The profit line does not mean what it looks like it means.Interest income was flat in 2025. Every shilling of the company's growth came from fees, which went from UGX 20.4bn to UGX 87.2bn in one year. Hold fees at the 2024 level and the year turns from a profit of UGX 38.4bn before tax into a loss of roughly UGX 28bn.
Why this number matters
A rate is not a return. What you keep depends on how often a lender fails to pay and how much of your money is gone when it does.
Watu Credit Uganda pays 13.2% a year on Mintos. On our reading the chance of it failing in a year is at least 25%. If a quarter of lenders like this one fail and about 70% of the money is gone when they do, the risk costs about 17.5% a year — which is more than the rate pays.
Show me how that works
The rate is what you are offered
It is what you get if everything goes right. It is not what you keep on average.
The risk has a price
Chance of failing × share of money not recovered. Both halves matter. A small chance of losing everything can cost more than a large chance of losing a little.
What is left is the real answer
Take the risk cost off the rate. If the answer is below zero, the rate is not paying you for the risk you are taking.
Watu Credit Uganda, worked through
| With our figures | |
|---|---|
| Rate on offer | 13.2% |
| Chance of failing in 12 months | at least 25% |
| Share of your money gone if it fails | about 70% |
| Cost of the risk, a year | at least 17.5% |
| Left after the risk cost | −4.3% at best |
What this company is
What it is
A Ugandan lender for motorbikes and phonesA licensed Tier 4 non-deposit-taking institution, licence 0264. It lends its own money and collects it itself.
Who it lends to
Riders and phone buyersMostly boda-boda motorbike riders buying the bike they work on, and people buying a phone in instalments.
How big its loan book is
UGX 335bnAbout €79m, after setting money aside for loans it does not expect back. The loans it makes to customers grew 17% in 2025, after money set aside.
Who owns it
Watu Holdings, MauritiusIt publishes no accounts we could obtain and carries no credit rating. It has given Mintos investors no guarantee.
What it costs and who else is watching
Platform
MintosAbout €9.6m of its notes were outstanding on 9 November 2026, issued through SIA Mintos Finance No. 11.
Rate on offer
13.2%The average rate on Mintos on 9 November 2026.
Mintos risk score
7.1 out of 10Mintos's own mark, not ours, updated by Mintos on 9 October 2026 (up from 6.8 on 9 July 2026). Its buyback-strength part — Mintos's own read on whether this lender could honour the promise to buy a loan back once it is 60 days late — was cut in April 2026 for what Mintos called higher funding diversification risk; it now stands at 5.2 out of 10.
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Information, not personal investment advice. The AI score rates the documents the platform publishes, can be wrong, and does not predict returns.
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