CGAP Country-Level Savings Assessment: Uganda

Publication Date: 31 Oct 2005
Published by: Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)
Document Type: Presentation

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Identifying constraints and opportunities for improving small balance deposit services

At the invitation of USAID's Rural SPEED project, CGAP’ team conducted the 5th country-level savings assessment in Uganda. This presentation presents the preliminary findings of the debriefing session which concluded the assessment.

It presents some of the common beliefs regarding microfinance across different countries:

• Client level: Disbelief that poor people save, lack of trust in financial institutions, pervasiveness of informal savings;
• Micro level: Most accessible institutions are the least well-regulated, secure;
• Macro level: Legal changes absorb enormous amounts of energy and attention, incoherent government policies.

The presentation further provides information on:

• The number of people served per access point;
• Concentration of accounts across different institutions;
• Client needs from different institutions.

Finally, the presentation recommends:

• Linking institutions to combine outreach and stability;
• Investing in new delivery mechanisms for microfinance delivery institutions (MDI) and commercial banks with interest in microfinance;
• oting active dialogue with Bank of Uganda to ensure mutual understanding of benefits, risks, and mitigation mechanisms for new methods of increasing outreach.