Stanbic Bets on Community Finance to Unlock Uganda’s Next Wave of Economic Growth

June 30, 2026 in Business, Companies, Finance, Financial Services, Trade & Industry by Editor

Different stakeholders pose for a photo during the AMFIU AGM

After reaching nearly four million Ugandans through SACCOs and village savings groups, Stanbic Bank is lowering lending rates for agricultural cooperatives, signalling a shift towards financing communities rather than individuals as the next frontier of financial inclusion.

 

For years, Uganda’s financial inclusion agenda has focused on bringing more people into the formal banking system. Increasingly, however, banks are discovering that the fastest route to underserved communities may not be through new branches, but through institutions that rural Ugandans already trust.

That shift was evident as Stanbic Bank Uganda announced a fresh push to finance Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) and village savings groups, positioning community-based finance as one of the country’s most effective channels for expanding access to affordable credit.

Speaking during the 28th Annual General Meeting of the Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda (AMFIU), Stanbic revealed that its partnerships with SACCOs and Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) have enabled more than UGX 362 billion in financing since 2021, reaching nearly four million Ugandans, the majority of them smallholder farmers.

The funding has also enabled approximately 780,000 members of community financial institutions to access credit, illustrating the growing role that cooperative finance is playing in Uganda’s rural economy.

But the bank is now raising the stakes.

To accelerate agricultural productivity, Stanbic has reduced its lending rate for agriculture-based SACCOs to 10 percent per annum, a move it believes offers some of the most affordable commercial financing available to the sector.

Multi-purpose SACCOs will access financing at 12.5 percent, with eligible institutions able to borrow up to UGX 7 billion.

According to Stephen Segujja, Head of the Economic Enterprise Restart Fund at Stanbic Bank, the strategy reflects a deliberate move away from viewing financial inclusion simply as account ownership.

“We believe financial inclusion is not simply about opening accounts or providing loans. It is about creating opportunities,” he said.

For the bank, those opportunities include helping farmers improve productivity, enabling women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and creating pathways for young people to build sustainable livelihoods.

Segujja noted that Stanbic’s relationship with SACCOs has changed dramatically over the past five years.

“At the start of 2021, as a bank we barely had any business to talk about regarding SACCOs and VSLAs. Today, the impact has been demonstrated not only within the bank but across the banking industry.”

The initiative forms part of Stanbic’s broader Women, Youth and Farmers (WYF) strategy, under which the bank committed UGX 1 trillion towards supporting Uganda’s productive sectors through tailored financing, business development and strategic partnerships.

Beyond credit, the bank is investing in strengthening the institutions themselves.

Working alongside partners such as aBi Finance, Stanbic is supporting SACCO digitisation while using its FlexiPay platform to extend digital financial services to cooperative members. More than 35,000 women leaders and farmer representatives have also received training in governance, financial management and leadership.

The emphasis on institutional strengthening reflects a wider recognition that sustainable financial inclusion depends as much on capable local organisations as it does on access to capital.

That message resonated throughout the AMFIU gathering.

AMFIU Board Chairperson James Onyutta said microfinance institutions continue to play an indispensable role in serving low-income households, rural communities and microenterprises that remain underserved by conventional banking.

Despite economic headwinds, he said, member institutions have continued expanding financial services to vulnerable groups while supporting enterprise development across the country.

Representing the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Commissioner for Financial Services Moses Ogwapus credited the microfinance sector with extending economic opportunities to millions of Ugandans, particularly women, farmers and entrepreneurs who previously had limited access to formal finance.

The latest announcements suggest Uganda’s financial inclusion agenda is entering a new phase. Rather than competing directly for individual customers, commercial banks are increasingly strengthening the community institutions that already command trust in rural areas.

If that model succeeds, the country’s next leap in financial inclusion may not come from building more bank branches—but from empowering the cooperative networks that have quietly become Uganda’s grassroots financial infrastructure.