Capital markets petitioned over Chipper Cash global shares

A concerned citizen has petitioned Capital Markets Authority (CMA) over a brokerage license it issued to Chipper Technologies also known as Chipper Cash last year to invest in US stock markets.
In his February petition, Mr Samuel Obedgiu wondered how Chipper Cash would go ahead to invite Ugandans to invest in its global stocks without issuing a prospectus as required by the law. 

Mr Obedgiu also noted that, among other issues, Chipper Cash had obtained a brokerage license from CMA yet the company has not utilised it and is not involved in any brokerage business at Uganda Securities Exchange.  
 “Chipper cash is offering securities to the public in Uganda without a prospectus. This [is] contrary to the law,” the petition reads in part, noting that the Securities Central Depository Act requires that all securities offered to Ugandans are supposed to be structured in a way  that  they  are  kept  by  a  custodian within  Uganda yet Chipper Cash has not structured the securities its offering to Ugandans. 

Therefore, Obedgiu wrote, CMA must conduct investigations on grounds that it might suspect that it may be necessary to prohibit Chipper Cash from trading in securities. 
Mr Keith Kalyegira, the CMA chief executive told Daily Monitor yesterday that they had invited the petitioner for a meeting but they were yet to agree on the finer details. 
“There were some merits in the petition, and the concern [is] the prospectus … we required Chipper Cash to comply with our advertisement regulations, since they never used the prospectus but were inviting the public to take up shares,” he said, noting that his team had tried to address issues raised through a face-to-face interaction with the petitioner but Mr Obedgiu had instead asked for a Zoom meeting since he was out of the country.

Chipper Cash, Mr Kalyegira  said, had taken some corrective steps, especially in regard to public advertisement but did not give details of the “corrective steps”  so far taken, insisting he was yet to get a final report about the matter. 
Mr Dan Tumuramye, the Chipper Cash country manager, yesterday said he had not received or seen any petition, neither had CMA informed him of the matter.

About the sale 
Ham Serunjogi, a Chipper Cash co-founder, released a statement at the launch of the fractional shares, saying: “For the first time ever, Ugandans of all economic backgrounds will be able to invest as little as $1 or Shs3,500 in the world’s largest public companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.”