Assessing the Needs of Refugees for Financial and Non-Financial Services - Uganda

With almost 1.5 million registered refugees, Uganda is the third largest hosting country in the world (and the largest in Africa) in absolute terms. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have developed a joint program to facilitate access to credit for the refugee population and their host communities in Jordan and Uganda. The two agencies selected the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation (GCAF) as a partner for the initiative and, as a first step, commissioned a country assessment in Jordan and Uganda in order to assess refugees’ demand for and access to financial and non-financial services as well as the challenges and opportunities they face. This report presents the findings from the demand assessment in Uganda.

The assessment is primarily based on original data collection through direct consultations with refugees as well as financial service providers (FSPs) and other relevant stakeholders. In particular, it involved interviews and focus group discussions with a total of 111 refugees (47% women and including refugees mostly from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also from Burundi, Eritrea, Rwanda, and Somalia)in the capital Kampala (12%), the Bidibidi settlement in the Yumbe district in the West Nile sub-region (50%), and the Nakivale settlement in the Isingiro district in the South-West subregion (38%) as well as interviews with 20 stakeholder entities.