By Brian Mugenyi
mugenyijj@gmail.com
Kampala: Mr. Fred Ssenoga, the Chief Executive Officer of Union Transport Alliance, says the organisation is no longer simply a transport platform but a complete economic cycle designed to connect transport, finance, health, education, energy and digital commerce as Uganda accelerates its journey towards a digital economy.
Speaking during an exclusive interview on Friday 21st August 2026, Ssenoga said Union Transport Alliance is building an interconnected system in which transport workers, families, consumers and businesses can access different services through a single digital ecosystem.
“The ecosystem of Union Transport Alliance is a complete cycle. We are joining and hoping to digitalise our system,” Ssenoga said.
His vision comes at a time when technology is rapidly changing how Ugandans work, trade, pay for services and access financial products. For Ssenoga, the transport sector provides a powerful entry point because it touches almost every corner of the economy.
Every day, boda-boda riders, taxi drivers, conductors, truck operators and other transport workers move people and goods while generating thousands of economic transactions.
Ssenoga wants those transactions to become part of an organised digital economy.
From moving people to moving the economy
The idea behind Union Transport Alliance is built around a simple observation: a transport worker does not only need a vehicle.
The worker needs fuel.
The family needs food.
Children need school fees.
A household may need healthcare.
The business may require capital.
And when an accident or illness strikes, the worker may need insurance.
Ssenoga believes these needs should not be treated as separate problems.
They can form part of one economic ecosystem.
“I am happy for this historical event today and it is time to develop the economy. We have a lot of problems. A taxi conductor travelling without fuel should not struggle again. He can use the Union Transport Alliance App for assistance,” he said.
The example illustrates the philosophy behind the Union model: use technology to turn everyday economic challenges into accessible services.
The RukaPay connection
The partnership between Union Transport Alliance and RukaPay is central to that digital ambition.
Ssenoga says a reliable payment system is necessary if the Union ecosystem is to connect different businesses and services under one platform.
“The partnership with RukaPay is a payment way to push our work and other companies under the platform,” he said.
The collaboration is therefore being positioned as more than a conventional business partnership.
It is intended to provide part of the digital infrastructure through which Union’s growing ecosystem can operate.
Ssenoga believes that when transport workers can access payments, financing and other services digitally, the economic value generated within the transport sector can circulate more efficiently.
Capital when workers need it
One of the biggest challenges facing people in the transport sector, according to Ssenoga, is access to working capital.
A driver may have customers but lack money for fuel.
A rider may have business opportunities but need urgent cash.
A parent may have income coming later but face an immediate school-fees deadline.
The Union App, he says, is designed to respond to such situations.
“In the transport system, people always struggle without capital. With the Union Transport Alliance App, you can get funds and pay later,” Ssenoga said.
He added that registration on the platform is intended to connect users to available Union products and services.
“When you register with the Union App, this is applicable and this is the only requirement for you to get products, and health insurance should be available,” he said.
The significance of this model lies in its attempt to bring informal-sector workers closer to structured financial services.
For years, many workers in the transport economy have operated largely on a cash basis, with limited access to formal financial products.
Digitalisation could change that equation by creating a record of transactions and connecting users to services through technology.
School fees become part of the economic cycle
Education financing is another component of the Union ecosystem.
Ssenoga said parents and students can access funds for school fees through a merchant-code arrangement and repay later.
“The school fees are also available where students and parents should access funds with a merchant code and later pay their school fees under Union Transport Alliance,” he said.
For families living from one income cycle to another, such an arrangement could help bridge temporary financial gaps.
It also illustrates the central idea behind the Union model: economic services should follow the needs of the people.
The transport worker should not have to leave one system and begin another journey every time a new financial or household need arises.
Twetase: protecting the people who keep Uganda moving
Ssenoga also announced plans to launch Twetase, an initiative aimed at helping people in the transport sector and their families access transport and health insurance.
“Soon we are launching Twetase because it is going to help people in transport and their families to get transport insurance and health insurance,” he said.
Insurance, in this context, becomes part of the economic cycle.
A worker who is protected against financial shocks is better positioned to continue working, support a family and remain economically productive.
For Ssenoga, therefore, economic development cannot be reduced to increasing transactions.
It must also protect the people behind those transactions.
Union Online Duuka
The digital transformation extends into commerce through Union Online Duuka, which Ssenoga sees as another gateway into the ecosystem.
“A good robust payment system and the Online Duuka is hoping to change the lives of people soon,” he said.
The digital marketplace is intended to make it easier for customers to access products while connecting commerce to the wider Union financial and transport network.
This creates a potentially powerful relationship.
Transport provides the physical network.
Digital technology provides the connection.
Finance provides liquidity.
Commerce provides products.
Insurance provides protection.
Health and education address household welfare.
Together, these elements form the economic cycle Ssenoga describes.
Union Oil and the wider ecosystem
The Union ecosystem also extends into energy through Union Oil and into other products and services designed around the needs of transport workers and consumers.
The significance is not necessarily in any single product.
It is in the connections between them.
A rider who buys fuel can also use digital financial services.
A driver can access financing.
A parent can seek school-fees support.
A family can access insurance.
A customer can purchase goods through the online marketplace.
Each transaction creates another link in the chain.
That is the economic logic driving Ssenoga’s vision.
Digitalisation as the next frontier
For Ssenoga, the future of the transport sector will increasingly depend on technology.
He believes Uganda’s informal economy can become more organised when people, payments, products and services are brought together digitally.
The objective is not simply to replace cash with mobile payments.
It is to create an ecosystem where economic activity can be tracked, connected and expanded.
That transformation could have wider implications for financial inclusion, entrepreneurship and service delivery if implemented at scale.
But Ssenoga’s ambition also comes with a test.
A digital ecosystem is only as strong as its accessibility, affordability, reliability and ability to solve real problems.
For Union Transport Alliance, success will therefore be measured not by the number of services placed on an app, but by whether ordinary Ugandans can use those services to improve their livelihoods.
A transport network with an economic mission
Ssenoga’s argument ultimately challenges the traditional understanding of transport.
Transport is usually seen as infrastructure for movement.
He sees it as infrastructure for economic participation.
The boda-boda rider is not merely carrying a passenger.
The taxi driver is not merely collecting a fare.
The transport network is not merely carrying people from one place to another.
It is carrying Uganda’s economic activity.
And if that activity can be organised, financed, protected and digitised, Ssenoga believes it can become a stronger engine of national development.
The partnership with RukaPay, the planned Twetase programme, Union Online Duuka, Union Oil and the wider Union digital ecosystem are therefore pieces of a much bigger ambition.
To build a transport system that does more than move Uganda—to build one that helps Uganda earn, trade, finance, protect and grow.
For Ssenoga, the destination is clear.
Union Transport Alliance is a complete economic cycle, and digitalisation is the road through which that cycle can become a powerful engine of Uganda’s economy.
