Protecting Minority Investors in Mobile-Money-Enabled Capital Markets: A Systematic Literature Review with Lessons from Uganda's MTN m-IPO

Mobile money has carried millions of Ugandans into the formal financial system, and in 2021 it carried many of them into the stock market. More than 93 per cent of applications in MTN Uganda's initial public offering (IPO) were lodged through a mobile platform, and most applicants were first-time investors. Four years later, the issuer proposed to separate its mobile-money business into a new company in which minority shareholders would hold their economic interest through a trust rather than directly. This article asks whether investors who enter capital markets through digital channels remain adequately protected after subscription, particularly when the issuer restructures. It combines a systematic literature review conducted under a protocol adapted from PRISMA 2020, doctrinal analysis of Ugandan company and securities law, and a documentary case study of the MTN transaction. Protection is assessed across six dimensions: disclosure, suitability, custody and ownership records, conflicts of interest, voting and participation, and dispute resolution. The article argues that scholarship on digital financial inclusion, retail investor protection and minority shareholder rights has developed in separate silos, and that their point of intersection, the digitally onboarded minority investor facing a corporate restructuring, remains largely unexamined in African markets. It proposes targeted reforms on responsibility in digital offers, disclosure for indirect-ownership arrangements, trustee duties and beneficiary rights, independent approval of related-party restructurings, and accessible dispute resolution.