Business 25 June 2026 Daily Monitor (Uganda)
Uganda's Gender Credit Gap: An Economic Liability Rooted in Invisibility and High Costs
Uganda faces a significant gender credit gap, not due to a lack of ambition in women, but because of systemic issues like invisible financial identities, unaffordable digital access, and inadequate financial data systems that fail to recognize women's economic contributions. Source: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/business/markets/how-the-gender-credit-gap-has-become-an-economic-liability-5508356
Many young Ugandan women are building financial histories through mobile money accounts registered under someone else’s name, creating an “invisible borrower” status that hinders their access to credit and economic opportunities. According to Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Uganda, nearly 900,000 women fall into this category, transacting regularly but lacking a recognized financial identity.
This issue is compounded by the difficulty many rural women face in obtaining national identification, a prerequisite for registering mobile money accounts in their own names. Airtel has introduced a streamlined process to address this, but the broader challenge of accessibility remains.
Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) offer a crucial social capital foundation, fostering trust and enabling members to save collectively and access small loans. However, these groups often lack the capacity to provide the larger sums needed for business growth. Experts suggest integrating VSLAs with formal financial services to enhance their lending capabilities and provide members with verifiable transaction histories.
A significant barrier to financial inclusion is the high cost of digital access, particularly the taxes imposed on mobile money transactions and smartphones. While initiatives aim to boost digitalization, steep excise duties and taxes on mobile money withdrawals and data services disproportionately affect low-income users, pushing many to abandon essential financial tools.
Moreover, the lack of gender-disaggregated data from Tier IV financial institutions means that disciplined female borrowers often remain invisible to the national credit ecosystem. Addressing these structural failures—from identity verification to inclusive product design and affordable digital infrastructure—is crucial to unlocking women’s economic potential and mitigating the economic liability of the current gender credit gap.
This article is based on information from the Daily Monitor.