With over 1.7 million refugees and asylum seekers within its borders, Uganda hosts the largest refugee population in Africa and the fifth largest in the world. While the country has a progressive and supportive regulatory framework for the socioeconomic inclusion of displaced people, refugees still face barriers in accessing loans for enterprise and other financial and non-financial services. A major challenge for financial service providers (FSPs) is their limited understanding of the refugees’ socioeconomic conditions, often leading to perceptions of them as transient, reliant on humanitarian aid and lacking reliable documentation.

With over 1.7 million refugees and asylum seekers within its borders, Uganda hosts the largest refugee population in Africa and the fifth largest in the world. While the country has a progressive and supportive regulatory framework for the socioeconomic inclusion of displaced people, refugees still face barriers in accessing loans for enterprise and other financial and non-financial services. A major challenge for financial service providers (FSPs) is their limited understanding of the refugees’ socioeconomic conditions, often leading to perceptions of them as transient, reliant on humanitarian aid and lacking reliable documentation.