Equity Bank Uganda leadership has intensified efforts to promote financial inclusion and improve livelihoods among refugees and host communities through a continued outreach tour of refugee settlements in South Western Uganda. Led by Director of Public Sector and Social Investments Catherine Somugen, the team is currently engaging stakeholders, refugee leaders, banking agents, and beneficiaries in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, Kamwenge District, where communities have praised the bank’s financial literacy programs, access to credit, and agency banking services for transforming lives and boosting household incomes.

Equity Bank Uganda leadership has continued its visit to refugee settlements in South Western Uganda as part of efforts to strengthen financial inclusion and improve livelihoods among refugee communities.

The team, led by Director of Public Sector and Social Investments Catherine Somugen, is currently in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement in Kamwenge District, where they met stakeholders, refugee leaders, banking agents, and beneficiaries of various financial empowerment programs.

During a stakeholders’ meeting held at the settlement offices, the refugee commandant in Rwamwanja called on Equity Bank to improve agency banking services within the settlement to ease access to financial services for refugees and host communities.

The commandant emphasized that improving agency banking would help reduce congestion and make banking services more accessible to vulnerable populations living in the settlement.

Among the beneficiaries is Ramzan Kasole, a refugee from Congo and chairperson of Young Star Nursery Establishment in Kyepango A5. Kasole says their group received a loan from Equity Bank and secured land from host communities where they started farming and tree seedling projects.

Kasole says the three-million-shilling loan transformed the lives of group members after they shared proceeds from their harvests. He explains that members used the income to pay school fees for their children and meet other household needs.

He, however, appealed to Equity Bank to increase their loan support to at least five million shillings to enable the group to expand into more income-generating projects, especially tree seedling production.

Meanwhile, Amin Pierre, a refugee from Congo and chairperson of Equity Agents in Rwamwanja Settlement, urged the bank to consider introducing fingerprint-enabled banking machines to help refugees who cannot read or write access their money more easily.

Pierre says agency banking business in the settlement has greatly improved over time, revealing that the number of customers seeking financial transactions has increased from about 50 people to more than 1,100 customers monthly.

He adds that the agency banking business has significantly transformed his livelihood and improved his standard of living.

In Bugoro-Kaberebere Parish, Nkomaa Subcounty in Kamwenge District, members of Tukundane Youth Group also praised Equity Bank for empowering both refugees and host communities through financial literacy training and access to loans.

The group chairperson, Wiston Kamugisha, says members involved in savings, piggery, and farming projects have benefited from Equity Bank loans for the last three years.

Kamugisha says the financial literacy training equipped members with knowledge on proper management of funds both as individuals and as groups.

According to Kamugisha, many members have improved their livelihoods, bought land, and built permanent houses due to profits generated from their projects. He says when he invests one million shillings in farming, he can earn profits of up to three million shillings in a single season.

For individual beneficiaries, the impact has also been life-changing. Peace Akampa, who serves as the treasurer of Tukundane Youth Group, says an individual loan from Equity Bank enabled her to venture into poultry and piggery farming.