Access to Rural and Agricultural Finance in Uganda

The financial sector in Uganda has experienced considerable growth and regulatory reforms in recent years. Despite these successes, more than 70 percent of the Ugandan population (compared to 82% in 2007) do not have access to formal financial services, including savings and credit, while also lacking basic understanding thereof. Especially the poor and the rural population, women and small-scale farmers suffer from this lack of access, which is one of the biggest obstacles to development.  FSD has been operating in Uganda since 1998 in order to improve the access to financial services. For the fifth phase of the programme (2011 to 2014), the focus lies on the following three objectives: 1)    Enabling regulatory environment for financial institutions 2)    Improved access to agricultural and rural financial services 3)    Strengthened financial literacy and financial consumer protection The tender focuses on the second objective, with the goal to improve the access to agricultural and rural finance, especially for economically active low income households and MSMEs with a focus on Northern Uganda. Interventions will in particular target the following themes:  1)    Development of financial products for the agricultural value chain, together with commercial banks and micro finance institutions, and in close cooperation with apex organizations and the GIZ development workers placed in the same. 2)    Strengthening of savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) in rural areas, with particular attention to Northern Uganda, directly, and via relevant apex structures. 3)    Participation at the dissemination of a national performance monitoring system for the micro finance sector. These interventions will be implemented in close collaboration with the FSD programme, GIZ development workers, and with local partners both on a national, meso-, and micro-level (i.e. local apex organizations) in order to benefit from linkages and synergies and to embed the activities into permanent and sustainable structures. In order to achieve the best possible outreach, the location of the consultancy will be placed in an urban Centre of the North still to be determined.