OmutiClub, answered honestly.
The basics: is it free, is it live, is it a SACCO?
OmutiClub is free to download and free to open an account. There is no subscription, and you only ever move your own money. Depositing, contributing, investing and moving money from a fund back into your wallet are all free. The one charge is a flat fee when you withdraw from your wallet to your bank or mobile money, starting at UGX 1,500. It is a flat amount rather than a percentage, which means it is proportionally largest on the smallest withdrawal, so withdrawing less often costs you less. The full table is in section 17 of the Terms. The app is live right now: get it on Google Play or the App Store. OmutiClub is built for your phone, so that is where your club lives.
No, OmutiClub is not a SACCO and not a bank. It is an app for your own savings group, the merry-go-round, the VSLA, the munno mukabi, finally tracked to the last shilling. We are not a bank, broker, dealer, fund manager, or investment adviser. We coordinate and keep the record, and we will say plainly where your money sits: pooled into an omnibus account we hold with a licensed fund manager, with our record showing the share that is yours.
How clubs and club loans work
A savings club is people who trust each other pooling contributions on a schedule. You set the amount, the frequency, and the rules; everyone sees the same transparent shared ledger, with clear roles for Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, and Member. Run a 2-person Duo club or a full Standard club. Every contribution, return, and repayment shows up in one place, for everyone.
Club Loans are internal, full stop. A member borrows from their own club's pooled savings, governed by that club's rules and approved by whoever your club named, who can never be the borrower, with a written repayment schedule on the club record. This is not consumer, personal, or payday lending; it is your group lending to itself, and every repayment flows back into the pool that everyone shares.
Investing, risk, and keeping your money safe
You can put idle cash to work by investing through licensed East African unit trust managers, regulated by Uganda's Capital Markets Authority under the Collective Investment Scheme Act. Investing carries risk: values can go up and down, and returns are never guaranteed. We say that plainly because it is true. OmutiClub's minimum to start investing is UGX 100,000, and you can invest as a club, together.
Investments sit with the licensed fund manager, pooled into one omnibus account held there in the name of OmutiClub or its nominee, and OmutiClub records the share of that account that is yours. There is no account in your own name at the manager, so our record is what establishes what you own, and we check that the shares we record still add up to the pooled total on our own books. We verify identity through KYC, encrypt your data, keep permanent audit trails, and in a club with more than one member the person who approves a request is never the one who raised it. Diaspora members in the UK, US, or Gulf can join or run a club with family back home and contribute on schedule from anywhere, seeing exactly where every shilling sits. Learn more on the home page.