Financial Service Regulation and Financial Inclusion in Uganda

Abstract

The surveys were carried out in 2006, 2009 and 2013 by Finscope to correlate whether the improved regulatory environment for financial services had a corresponding effect on increased demand, access to financial services and products in Uganda or not. The indicators of financial inclusion in 2013 survey included (i) access to formal and informal financial services and products (ii) savings and investment, (iii) credit and borrowing, (iv) remittances and money transfer and (v) insurance and financial literacy. In 2013, the survey results indicated that 54% (compared to 28% in 2009) of the Ugandan adult population (those 16 years and above) had access to bank and non bank financial service institutions. An increase in the use of formal non-bank financial services such as insurance and mobile money services were responsible for enhanced access to financial services in Uganda. For instance, the use of formal non-bank services increased from 20% in 2009 to 52% in 2013 and this trend has been in ascendance. There was an uptake in financial inclusion in Uganda from 70% in 2009 to 85% by 2013 with 20% of the adult population (3.4 million adults) having access and use of formal regulated financial intermediation services. Approximately 34% of the population had access to non-bank formal services as opposed to formal banks. In this same vein, it was found that 5.1 million adults, (which constituted 31% of the adult population in Uganda) preferred to use only formal financial institutions as opposed to the informal financial products and services.