Refugees have a strong need for comprehensive financial services to support their livelihoods. Refugees, like other relatively low-income segments, need: savings or transaction accounts to safely store their income and minimise the risk of theft; loan products to support business ventures and meet other personal needs; insurance to minimise the financial impact of unpredictable events; and convenient access to financial services channels to receive remittances. The refugees’ need for financial services has become even more apparent as the World Food Programme continues to shift its humanitarian support from food assistance to cash-based transfers.

Rwanda has been hosting refugees for over 20 years. In this context of long-term displacement, governments, humanitarian agencies, the development sector and other stakeholders must provide long-term solutions for refugees, such as financial services, which can support market-based livelihoods. FSDA, UNHCR and AFR partnered on this study to assess both the demand for financial services in refugee populations and the business case for Rwandan financial institutions to provide these services.

The study had two objectives: first, to provide market intelligence to build a sound business case for financial institutions to profitably serve the forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) population; and second, to better understand the financial needs of the FDP population in Rwanda to enable financial service providers (FSPs) to effectively target the segment.

This report is the result of a triangulation of four different research activities:  segmenting and sizing refugees as a market for financial services; translating the segments into business cases to assess potential for serving this market; creating profiles of segments based on field research in refugee camps; and assessing the regulatory environment to provide financial services for refugees.

Some of the key findings from the report are:

1. At the moment, six of the seven camps in Rwanda have cash and the last camp Mahama is likely to
   become cash before the end of the year.
2. Contrary to expectations, refugees in Rwanda have enough income to be strong potential customers for FSPs.
3. The report estimates that extending financial services to the refugee population of Rwanda would expand the market for financial services by approximately 44,000 individuals.
4. Many refugees have used financial services before and want to use them again, perhaps even more urgently than Rwandan nationals.
5. BFA’s dynamic business case model suggests the refugee population has as much potential to generate profit for FSPs as the traditional Rwandan population.
6. One of the biggest challenges refugees face in accessing financial services relates to satisfying the ID requirement for ‘know your customer’ (KYC) purposes.