Scale2Save programme signs up FINCA Uganda
Scale2Save Campaign
Micro savings, maximum impact.
Microfinance institution project to harness innovation, broaden access to 52,000 Ugandans.
BRUSSELS, 31 July 2019 –WSBI announces today that FINCA Uganda has joined the Scale2Save programme.
Outlined in a memorandum of understanding with WSBI, FINCA Uganda will leverage breakthrough technologies to build a new business model geared towards sustainable savings mobilisation. Digital innovations such as the development of relevant and responsible mobile-based products delivered via a smartphone, agent or handset, as well as digital field automation (DFA) and data analytics form the backbone of this model. The aim is to build out more appropriate savings products accessible on mobile and digitally-enabled financial literacy modules deployed over the devices.
FINCA Uganda CEO and Managing Director James Onyutta said: “We intend to create a product to help people save regularly and affordably. The aim is to improve access to savings for 52,000 excluded customers, customise products to customers’ needs to drive usage, and enable customers’ capacity to use them in the best suited way to their situation.”
Access, Appropriate Products
Proximity to banking services remains a challenge. Some FINCA customers travel long distances to open an account or make a simple transaction at a branch. By bringing services to their doorstep or in the palm of their hand, digital channels – both mobile and shared agents – will make banking more efficient and savings more affordable. Digitising FINCA’s channels will enable it to collect more data on its customers for use to test and customize new savings products to drive regular deposit mobilisation and use. One such offer foreseen is a youth mobile-targeted savings account. FINCA will test the influence of a set of variables, such as duration of savings period, type of in-kind rewards, type of customer engagement, financial education on savings behavior.
Financial Literacy, Win-win partnerships
FINCA intends to design a customer literacy platform, accessible via tablets and mobile phones, providing customers with money management skills and information on the services best suited to them.
Partnerships will play a big role in the project too, as FINCA will partner with other like-minded but non-financial organizations, such as youth focused and technology companies, that can bring added value to its work and help us better reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals. With support from WSBI, a partnership will be explored with Centenary Bank to utilize shared agency banking infrastructure.
FINCA targets mainly low-income people. That segment will remain on the radar under this project. They will test and prototype savings products and develop use cases, and focus on Ugandan youth in Kampala as well as Northern and Western regions.
WSBI’s Chris De Noose added: “Digital channels outlined in the FINCA Uganda project have potential not just to change the way financial products are distributed, but also how information and education is delivered.”
For more information, contact:
WSBI: James Pieper at James.Pieper@wsbi-esbg.org or on +32 496 51 72 70;
FINCA Uganda: Scovia.Swabrah at Scovia.Swabrah@fincaug.org and Alice Lubwama at Alice.Lubwama@fincaug.org or on +256 312 227 800.
Notes to editors:
About FINCA Uganda (MDI)
FINCA Uganda is the first Microfinance Deposit taking Institution (MDI) to be licensed by the Bank of Uganda in 2004 to offer life-changing financial solutions which include: Savings, Loans and Money Transfers. Having started operations in 1992, currently FINCA Uganda has a network of 27 branches that are well spread across the country. FINCA Uganda is part of the FINCA Impact Finance Network, a group of 20 microfinance and financial institutions that provides socially responsible financial services and enables low-income entrepreneurs and small business owners to invest in the future. The majority owner of the network is FINCA International, a microfinance and social enterprise not-for-profit leader dedicated to creating economic inclusion for the poor. For more information, visit www.FINCAImpact.com.
About WSBI
The World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI), founded in 1924, represents the interests of 6,000 savings and retail banks globally, with total assets of $15 trillion and serving some 1.3 billion customers in nearly 80 countries (as of 2016). The Institute focuses on international regulatory issues that affect the savings and retail banking industry. It supports the achievement of sustainable, inclusive, balanced growth and job creation, whether in industrialised or less developed countries.
About Scale2Save
Scale2Save is a partnership between WSBI and Mastercard Foundation to establish the viability of small-scale savings in six African countries. The six-year programme aims for 1 million more people banked in those countries through projects using innovative models.
Scale2Save
March 1, 2023
The State of Savings and Retail Banking in Africa
The WSBI has conducted two research reports tracking the progress of retail and savings banks in their financial inclusion efforts across Africa (2018, 2019).
February 22, 2023
Driving Formal Savings: What Works for Low-Income Women?
While financial inclusion is expanding globally, the gender gap in access to financial services and products persists
December 19, 2022
What a journey it has been!
Between 2016 and 2022 Scale2Save financially included more than 1.3 million women, young people and farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal and
December 14, 2022
The financial diaries revealed useful insights into young people’s savings, spending and income behavior
It examines their experience in respect to financial inclusion, support structures and opportunities for young entrepreneurs
December 9, 2022
The Power of Community-Based Organizations to Mobilize Farmers’ Savings
In Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, cocoa is harvested twice a year, in May-June and in October-December. Between seasons, most smallholder farmers do not generate revenue
November 15, 2022
How Can Small Scale Savings Be Offered Sustainably?
Learnings from the Scale2Save Program on successful business and institutional models
November 15, 2022
Application of CGAP Customer Outcomes Framework in Uganda
This case study by WSBI's Scale2Save programme applied the CGAP customer outcome indicator framework to test the impact of a new basic savings product positioned in the financial inclusion market and…
November 10, 2022
Driving formal savings: What works for low-income women
Gender-inclusive products need to be designed with low-income women’s needs in mind. Yet, the real question remains: What services do female customers value, prioritize and need? This learning paper…
November 10, 2022
The art of change
Leaning paper by WSBI's Scale2Save programme for financial inclusion in Africa. A practical approach to changing behaviors of financial service providers for more meaningful outreach to low-income…
November 10, 2022
Digital Financial Inclusion in Nigeria and Uganda: opportunities and remaining challenges
Earlier this year, the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WBSI) programme for financial inclusion, Scale2Save, through the support of the Mastercard Foundation
News & Views magazine: Q2 2019
More publications
December 23, 2022
Financial News & Views: December 2022 Edition
September 23, 2022
Financial News & Views: September 2022 Edition
June 23, 2022
Financial News & Views: June 2022 Edition
March 20, 2022
Financial News & Views: March 2022 Edition
November 23, 2021
Financial News & Views: November 2021 Edition
October 20, 2021
Financial News & Views: October 2021 Edition
August 21, 2021
Financial News & Views: August 2021 Edition
April 20, 2020
News & Views magazine: Q1 2020
December 20, 2019
News & Views magazine: Q4 2019
October 20, 2019