This paper sought to investigate the characteristics of MSMEs and to suggest ways of improving performance, particularly tackling constraints faced by women and youth entrepreneurs in Uganda
Agent Accelerator Survey 2016
FINANCE among Micro-Sized, MSMEs, Medium-Sized & Small-sized Enterprises
Starting Monday 30th October for one week, people all over the world are going to celebrate Financial inclusion. According to Center for Financial Inclusion the focus will be on exploring how new financial products and partnerships are empowering customers. While all of this is going on, I imagine the first question anybody would ask, as I often do, is this: Honestly, why should I care about financial inclusion? Here are 4 reasons why:
By Jacqueline Musiitwa,
Former Executive Director, Financial Sector Deepening Uganda
The poverty level in Uganda is shockingly high. According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics in the 2016/17 Household Survey, about 27% or 10 million people are poor. Although there are many ways to climb out of poverty, access to and usage of financial inclusion is one of the critical. The Survey also found that about 33% of Ugandans keep money at home or a secret place. That is the most common way people save money. This is followed by Village Savings and Loans Associations at 16%. With such a high number of people excluded from formal financial services, it is hard for them graduate from one income level to another.
On October 30, 2017, as part of Financial inclusion week running from 30 October to 3 November 2017, FSDU held its first Symposium on Financial Inclusion at the Kampala Serena Hotel. The Symposium was a success attracting over 150 high profile stakeholders from the financial sector in Uganda. The theme for this year’s global financial inclusion week, was “New Products, New Partnerships and New Potential”.
The financial services industry – banks, mobile network operators, insurance providers and others – have historically sought to work independently in achieving their profitability goals. With the recent global and regional influx of Fintechs – companies that leverage technology and innovation to compete in the financial services marketplace – this industry is getting significantly more competitive. Working collaboratively with fintechs, these bigger and more traditional financial services providers stand to improve their ability to respond to established and emerging challenges to growing their customer numbers and improving their bottomline performance.
By Joseph Lutwama
Former Policy, Legal and Regulatory Specialist, Current FSD Uganda Director of Programs
Can my money ever be safe? Can I trust the bank to keep my money safe? I am sure at some point in your life you have asked yourself these questions when deciding where to keep your money. Five out of every ten adult Ugandans keep their money at home in a “safe place”. Only 5 out of 100 adult Ugandans actually keep their money in a commercial bank.
FinTech Association of Uganda in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSDU) launched the FinTech Association of Uganda at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel on August 31, 2017.
The emergence and increasing dominance of mobile money in Uganda has resulted in the development of digital financial services. Though still at infancy, digital financial services present immense opportunities for financial inclusion. FinTech activities go beyond mobile money aggregation services to include broader technology solutions that can deliver affordable and high quality financial products and services. Whereas FinTech has revolutionised the financial sector in developed markets, it is only beginning to take root in emerging markets. In Africa, it is also beginning to gain traction, starting with South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and now Uganda.
Undeniably, a lot has been said as well as written about mobile money. However, it seems there is still some unfinished business related to the topic of mobile money. This unfinished business explains why there is still an ongoing debate about the effect of mobile money on an economy, in this case the economy of Uganda. I found this debate a very intriguing one and I got tempted to contribute to it, particularly from the perspective of inclusiveness and poverty reduction. I would like to rebuff the line of thinking that mobile money has adverse effects on the economy and instead reiterate the counter argument that mobile money has already been playing significant roles, which are quite relevant in the quest for economic transformation and mass poverty reduction.
At the time of writing this piece, 13 July 2017, the Great Lakes Summit will be taking place in Munyonyo for two days. According to the website, Kampala will play host to a gathering of politicians, businesses and pro-market advocates from Europe, East Africa and beyond. The summit will explore the vast opportunities for greater trade and investment in the region: and make the ethical case for free trade as a means for poverty alleviation, conflict resolution and social justice”
Once again it is that time of year when the country takes stock of the performance of the preceding year. This year is no different. As I write this article, it is just two days away from the budget speech. Having read through the background to the budget, I have a few thoughts to pen down on the implications of the current budget and future economic projections on financial inclusion. Before we dive into the details the article we need to first unpack this term financial inclusion if we are to do justice to this discourse.
This survey was commissioned by the Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSDU) on behalf of Uganda Insurers Association (UIA). The survey was implemented by Ipso was conducted within the major towns of the four regions of Uganda.
For the last few months I’ve attended several conferences discussing various aspects of the financial services sector from product innovation to financial inclusion. The one thing that has carried over from country to country and topic to topic is the inevitable moment when the coolest person in the room will mention that they’re currently reading up on the next big thing. Bitcoin and Blockchain. This technology is going to change everything. It will upturn business models and the internet will finally be leveraged for change and life will be all rainbows and ice-cream-gluten free at that.
Faith owns a small fruit-selling business in Uganda. Like most small business owners in Uganda, Faith started her enterprise with her own income and lacks access to finance to grow beyond the few fruit stalls she owns. She doesn’t keep full financial records and lives most of herlife informally and in cash, but has started using mobile money to make payments to the truck driver that delivers the fruit to the market and to receive payments from her customers. Faith, like Gimli Roberts from our first blog post, lacks access to financial services that support and improve their livelihoods.
FSD Uganda is an independent, not for profit company. We support innovation, conduct research and help promote and improve policy, laws and regulation that shape the financial sector.
Blended Finance Catalysing Financial Inclusion in Uganda
Data sets – FinScope Uganda 2023 Survey Dataset
Unlocking Long-Term Savings: The Role of Technology and Multistakeholder Collaboration in Uganda
Leveraging Insights from Uganda’s 2023 FinScope Survey for Product Design
