Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDP) Programme

Project description

The programme promotes development and delivery of financial services for refugees and other Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDP) communities in Uganda, Rwanda, and DRC. The services developed are intended to link directly into survival and livelihood strategies of these communities and help shift the paradigm from humanitarian-based to market-based solutions. It also promotes the financial inclusion of host communities.

Target Results

1. Financial inclusion of 300,000+ refugees and FDPs H
2. Increased resilience and welfare enhancement
3. Creation of 50+ direct jobs
4. Income generation
5. More affordable, convenient and competitive financial solutions developed for refugees and FDPs
6. Replication in other settlements and countries
7. Policy and regulation changes to facilitate the registration of refugees and FDPs
8. Additional funds mobilised to support refugee interventions

Progress to date

The DRC project was discontinued after the seed funding in 2019 following change of strategic focus and delays in the project.

The Uganda project ended in March 2022 and had achieved the following:

1. 26,300+ customers accessing loans, 73% of which are female
2. Cumulative loans amounting to £1.9 million ($2.25million)
3. 262 bank agents recruited across refugee settlements, 15% of which are women
4. 93,300+ households registered on Equity Bank Uganda’s digital platform (average household size of 8)
5. 65,484 households receiving digital payments through Equity Bank Uganda
6. Equity Bank Uganda made payments worth UGX 10.8 Bn (£2.2m) during the January – March quarter of 2022
7. 8 humanitarian agencies used Equity Bank Uganda’s platform for disbursements

The Uganda project also provided useful research outputs including a baseline survey of refugee and host communities, 4 series of financial diaries and an endline survey at the end of the project. All the project partners are continuing with their services to refugees.

The Equity Bank Rwanda project experienced delays and concluded in March 2023. At the end of the project, the bank had opened 57,000 accounts for refugees, with 25,119 accounts having savings of £ 1.25m. The bank had facilitated 66,348 remittance transactions worth £ 2m. However, the bank was not able to offer loans and insurances services to refugees at the time the project ended. The main reason for not providing loans is that the bank required a credit guarantee scheme while the insurance offering was still in discussion with UNHCR.

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