CGAP Country-Level Savings Assessment: Uganda

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;
• Promoting active dialogue with Bank of Uganda to ensure mutual understanding of benefits, risks, and mitigation mechanisms for new methods of increasing outreach.