Foundational Work
As the country’s leading financial markets think-and-do-tank, we work closely with public and private financial market actors to address constraints to accessing and using formal financial services. Our work cuts across policy interventions, support for more efficient market infrastructure, and providing catalytic grants and technical assistance to innovators designing, piloting and scaling pioneering financial products and services. Using a Market Systems Development approach, our interventions ensure that we effect sustainable, scalable change in Uganda’s financial sector. We are leveraging early successes to respond to the needs of the real economy.
Primary Target Group: All
Tools of Impact: Technical Assistance
Achievements: Development of Uganda’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy.
Synopsis: FSDU supported the development of Uganda’s first National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS).
Primary Target Group: All
Tools of Impact: Technical Assistance
Achievements: Provisions for Agency banking, Islamic Banking and Bancassurance in Uganda.
Synopsis: We provided support around inputs and amendments to the FIA Bill, and subsequent regulations that emerged from the bill.
Primary Target Group: All
Tools of Impact: Technical Assistance
Achievements: Development of the Movable Property and Securities Interests Bill.
Synopsis: Review the legal and regulatory framework to the Chattels Securities Act 2014.
Digital Economy
FSD Uganda interventions continue to create an enabling policy and regulatory environment for the financial inclusion of underrepresented groups. We build the capacity of policy makers, regulators, and industry associations to ensure they are equipped to respond to the needs of tomorrow’s financial markets while serving today’s consumer effectively. Our targeted support for efficient financial market infrastructure and processes will help reduce friction in the movement of money within the economy, with the goal of transferring these efficiency gains to the consumer.
Focus Groups: All
Theme: Savings, Credit, Payments, Insurance, Investment
Type: Presentation deck
Synopsis: Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Uganda, in partnership with the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda (AMFIU) and Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) hosted a validation workshop where highlights from a study on how the COVID-19 lockdown affected savings groups were shared.
Focus Groups: All
Tools of Impact: Technical assistance
Achievements: Development of a framework to facilitate the interoperability of mobile money services.
Partners: Bank of Uganda
Synopsis: Facilitation of mobile wallet interoperability across different networks.
Focus Groups: All
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant, Technical Assistance
Achievements: Over 60,000 SACCO members reached.
Partners: Equity Bank Uganda Ltd, Future Link Technologies
Synopsis: Connecting SACCOs to Supervised Financial Institutions.
Digital Finance for Quality Jobs
In Uganda, the population growth rate, especially among youth who are increasingly better educated and exposed, is not reflected in a similar growth in livelihood opportunities and options. Our interventions in the Digital Finance for Quality Jobs portfolio target sectors with a high multiplier effect, including agriculture. We leverage financial products and services to increase productivity and create value addition opportunities, to improve the livelihoods of productive adults. Better incomes and improved quality of jobs will reduce the impact of financial shocks on individuals, households, and communities and lift them out of poverty cycles.
Focus Groups: Refugees
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant, Technical Assistance
Achievements: 8,703 saving group members have received productive credit to date, 74% who are women. 308 savings groups have received loans thorugh this intervention.
Partners: VisionFund Uganda
Synopsis: Implementing partner VisionFund Uganda piloted a unique wholesale credit model for savings groups in West Nile region.
Focus Groups: Smallholder Farmers
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant
Achievements: Currently, 1,170 smallholder farmers and 10 cooperarives have been given access to credit.
Partners: Emata
Synopsis: Digitize dairy cooperatives and providing them with a system that will allow them to lend based off these records.
Focus Groups: Refugees
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant, Technical Assistance
Achievements: 385 youth in refugee settlements have got acces to productive credit through this intervention, 71% who are female.
17 savings groups in the project area have opened up accounts with upstream partner Centenary Bank, and 16 groups have been digitised and are receiving credit.
Partners: Rural Finance Initiative (RUFI)
Synopsis: Providing refugees with both credit and savings products by tapping into exiting norms (VSLAs) and digitising them.
Digital Finance For Quality of Life
Above our goals of upwards economic mobility, FSD Uganda’s interventions are aimed at improving the quality of life for individuals, households and communities. Appropriate financial products and services can increase access to critical social services including health, education, and affordable housing. These services have a big impact on the wellbeing and long-term outcomes for communities and can also help them manage risk and contribute effectively to shared prosperity.
Focus Groups: Refugees
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant, Technical Assistance
Achievements: 14,051 refugees have received digital payments, 50% of who are women.
Partners: Equity Bank Uganda Ltd.
Synopsis: Digitising humanitarian payments for efficiency and leveraging agent networks to provide merchants in settlements with credit.
Focus Groups: All
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant
Achievements: As at Sept. 2021, 4,913 individuals had made investments through the platform, 34% who are women.
Additionally, 66 groups and MSMEs have made investments through the platform.
Partners: Xeno
Synopsis: Scaling out investment opportunities to individuals with feature phones via USSD.
Focus Groups: All
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant, Technical Assistance
Achievements: As as Sept. 2021, ClinicPesa had onboarded close to 1,500 healthcare facilities.
Partners: clinicPesa
Synopsis: Provide access to healthcare financing for uninsured Ugandans through a digital healthcare micro-loan and savings platform.
Digital Finance For Sustainable Futures
Emerging risks that individuals, households, and businesses face from the broader environment, including climate change and skewed capital markets, can affect the long-term outcomes of partners’ development efforts. We recognise that sustained wellbeing is only attainable if we work collectively to mitigate and respond effectively to these risks. In this portfolio, our work will cover climate finance and interventions that enhance the role of capital markets, and other long-tenor financing instruments, in building resilient communities.
Focus Groups: All
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant
Achievements: Over 21 organisations have utilised the findings for their programming.
Research on finance and energy among the rural households.
Focus Groups: All
Tools of Impact: Catalytic Grant
Partners: BrightLife, Finca
Expanding formal savings and credit service among lower-income earners thorugh access to energy products.