VisionFund’s Refugee Microfinance Program in West Nile, Uganda: One Year On

As families in refugee settlements continue to face the everyday challenges of rebuilding their lives and livelihoods, the availability of economic opportunities remains essential for these communities to survive.

In 2018, VisionFund International along with its local microfinance institution, VisionFund Uganda, and other partners, completed an assessment of the savings and lending activity in Uganda’s West Nile region to determine the viability of providing financial services to these community groups.

The assessment results merited providing these services to the host population and refugees, especially in those areas where there was limited or no presence of formal financial institutions, and in 2019, VisionFund Uganda opened a branch in the town of Moyo, West Nile.

Join the panel of speakers from VisionFund as they share their experience of taking microfinance to refugee communities, and progress made. Also hear from one of the project funders, the Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation, on their innovative blended-finance approach to supporting this initiative with the support of the UNHCR and the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).