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According to the Finscope Uganda 2018 report, 9.7 million people have mobile phones in Uganda with a population of nearly 40 million.
And 1.9 million have access to be reached digitally by financial service providers.
According to the World Bank, financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.
While commenting on the state of financial inclusion in Uganda, Rachel Sebudde, a senior economist at the World Bank Uganda office, pointed out that greater financial inclusion is the key to unlocking rapid growth.
The Finscope survey found that the breadth of access to financial services is quite wide in Uganda, with 78% of Ugandan adults having access to some form of financial service from the formal or informal sectors, more than double the number in 2006.
According to the 2016/17 Uganda National Household Survey, the structure of the Ugandan economy is such that it is dominated by household enterprises, with approximately three quarters of the working population being self-employed.
Kasekende noted that if the people who own and work in the household enterprises have no access to financial services, their capacities to engage in business will be stifled.
He pointed out that if the promotion of financial inclusion can strengthen the access to financial services of the household enterprises in Uganda; it should help these enterprises to flourish and generate more output and boost the incomes of their owners and operators.