UN appeals to parliament to pass financially inclusive legislations

By Norman Katende

The United Nations has appealed to the Uganda Parliament to pass legislation that will enable rural Ugandans benefit from access to financial institutions and their services. 

The call was made by the UN Capital Development Fund manager for Mobile money for the poor, Tillman Bruett, as the task force went through the discussions of the four-day digital finance workshop that concluded Friday at Munyonyo.

Tillman, who was meeting with the working group and discussing the benefit of such workshops said that over 80% of the Ugandan population has been ignored by the financial institutions as per the findings of the workshops.

"Uganda has had a success story on mobile money but there are a lot of headaches in using the services in the rural area  and they are affecting  a number of people. A lot of these bottlenecks can be solved if the providers work with regulators and policy makers," said Tillman.

He appealed to the  providers to have a critical look at the services they are providing adding that the banks' threat of not being sure whether profits can be made if they extend the services to the rural population should be addressed fast enough.

"UNCDF is trying to show the banks that there is a business case but they need an even playing field for them to engage the populations  and this can only be addressed by the laws. There are legislations that are in parliament and we are hopeful that parliament can take up these legislations in six months and make the decision. It is our hope that they will approve the financial institutions act to enable the services to the rural people."

UN's country's technical specialist Amani Mbale noted that there is also need to work with all the stakeholders to make sure that all the things that are faced by the rural areas are experiencing in terms of bottlenecks are addressed.

"Sharing telephones, poor networks among others need to be addressed. If this is worked on, than the service would be greatly improved and more products like insurance and saving should be improved. Let us not assume that the show is over, we are just beginning," said Mbale.

"We have a difficult time in providing services to the rural areas but we can achieve it."