News from InFiNe.lu Members: Sida, UNHCR and Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation join hands for financial inclusion of refugees in Uganda

News from InFiNe.lu Members: Sida, UNHCR and Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation join hands for financial inclusion of refugees in Uganda

KAMPALA: The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation (GCAF) today launched a four-year programme to promote access to financial and non-financial services for refugees and host communities in Uganda.

The programme is an innovative blended financial approach with public and private funds coming together to facilitate finance for refugees and host communities. Access to affordable credit services is essential for refugees to start, build and expand enterprises, to meet their daily needs and to be more resilient to emergencies. In addition, access to other types of financial services such as savings, payments and insurance is key to ensure the inclusion of refugees in the formal financial sector and promote their self-reliance and resilience.

An innovatiove approach

This is a first-of-its-kind programme designed to incentivize both microfinance investors and financial service providers (FSPs) to extend their financial services to refugee and host populations. The project is currently piloted in Palorinya refugee settlement, in northern Uganda and in Kampala and will be gradually expanded to other targeted refugee-hosting districts.

“It is an effective way of using development aid, where we mobilize capital from other investors and thus ensure that scarce humanitarian funds can be released to go to refugees with the greatest need,” says Director General, SIDA, Carin Jämtin.

GCAF will provide debt funding to three FSPs with a guarantee from SIDA, which will also fund the technical assistance of the programme through its humanitarian allocation. The Foundation will coordinate, together with UNHCR, the technical assistance component in order to support the three FSPs to develop an offer of products and services, including financial literacy and business development trainings, for both refugees and members of the host communities.

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Source: Fondation Grameen Crédit Agricole