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Savers under the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Uganda have grown to 4.7m accounts, reflecting growth in the savings culture and utilisation of formal financial services among low-income Ugandans.

Data further indicates that of the 4.7m saving accounts, just half, or 2.05m have borrowed or are still servicing loans with more than Shs3.8 trillion worth of loan capital deployed, while members operate a combined network of 702 branches in 102 districts.

Outside microfinance, data further indicates that the saving culture has enjoyed good growth in the last five years with members under savings and credit cooperative societies (Saccos), almost tripling from 5 percent to 14 percent, according to the 2023 Finscope survey.

However, the growth is lower compared to about 17 million accounts held by supervised financial institutions, including commercial banks and credit institutions.

Speaking during the second annual Microfinance and Savings Groups Conference in Kampala Secretary to the Treasury Ramathan Ggoobi, said that whereas the savings sector has grown over the years, the growth would have been much higher but many potential savers “are held back by a lack of interest, knowledge, and trust,” due to theft, fraud and abusive practices by microfinance service providers.

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