Uganda

Economy:
Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, small deposits of copper, gold, and other minerals, and recently discovered oil. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing over 80% of the work force. Since 1990, economic reforms have ushered in an era of solid economic growth based on continued investment in infrastructure, improved incentives for production and exports, lower inflation, better domestic security, and the return of exiled Indian-Ugandan entrepreneurs. Growth continues to be solid, despite variability in the price of coffee, Uganda's principal export.

Uganda's steady economic growth, however, has had relatively little impact on its poor, with per capita annual income mired at $1,300, and 35 percent of the population living below the national poverty line. Nearly one million Ugandans live with HIV/AIDS, which has killed 77,000.

Uganda suffered years of brutal dictatorship, followed by guerilla war that claimed the lives of over 400,000 people between 1971 and 1985. The Lord's Resistance Army, a sectarian religious and military group, has waged guerilla war in northern Uganda since 1987, massacring entire villages and abducting many thousands of children for use as soldiers and sex slaves. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against a number of LRA leaders, who are charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape, sexual slavery, and enlisting of children as combatants.

Climate for microfinance:
• FINCA Uganda is the country’s first regulated, deposit-taking microfinance institution, permitting it to intermediate saving deposits, allowing a vast new area of client services.
• The World Bank has estimated that Uganda's informal economy represents 43.1 percent of the country's GNP.

FINCA Uganda (Founded 1992)

FINCA Uganda is the country’s first regulated, deposit-taking microfinance institution. It serves clients in 24 of the country’s 69 districts, in the rural and urban areas of the country, through 22 branches. FINCA Uganda offers three types of credit products, which include both individual and village banking loan products for rural, urban, and peri-urban markets for working capital and business improvements and salary loans. It also offers four savings products, money transfer services, a home improvement loan product, and is developing a health insurance product. More than 60 FINCA Uganda clients who lost their businesses in a devastating market fire received payments for claims submitted under FINCA’s microinsurance policies, enabling them to rebound from disaster.

Over 400 rural clients have benefited from a FINCA pilot project to finance solar energy systems. Electricity has helped clients increase sales and spawn new businesses, improved family health by reducing dependence on kerosene lamps, and even boosted learning by enabling children to study after dark. Given sufficient funding, the project may be scaled-up in the near future.

FINCA's Ambassador of Hope Natalie Portman visiting the clients of a FINCA Uganda Village Bank.

Giving Her Children the Opportunity She Never Had

FINCA Uganda

Clients: 56,821
Village Banking groups: 2,671
Average loan: $379
Loans outstanding: $19,089,624
On-time repayment: 97.1%
Services: Village Banking and working capital, micro-insurance; solar loans, village phone loans, K O Net, savings accounts, money transfers, and more.

Background
Geography: An Eastern African country slightly smaller than Oregon, Uganda shares borders with Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, and Tanzania.
Population: 33.4 million
Ethnicities: Baganda 16.9%, Banyakole 9.5%,
Basoga 8.4%, Bakiga 6.9%, Iteso 6.4%, Langi 6.1%, Acholi 4.7%, Bagisu 4.6%, Lugbara 4.2%, Bunyoro 2.7%, other 29.6%
Religions: Roman Catholic 41.9%, Protestant 42% (Anglican 35.9%, Pentecostal 4.6%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.5%), Muslim 12.1%, other 3.1%, none 0.9%
Average life expectancy: 53 years
Median age: 15 years
Literacy: 66.8 percent
Government: Republic

* Program information is updated on a monthly basis with information from the field.