By Mulengera Reporters
In the broader scheme of things, the Equity Bank Group seeks to deliberately reach out and support vulnerable members of the community who are chiefly found at the very bottom of the pyramid. And that exactly is what its Africa Recovery & Resilience Plan (ARRP) is all about, nothing else.
It’s against that background that Equity Bank deliberately has in place the social investment arm which comprises of several pillars; seek to empower sections of the African population that would ordinarily have been deprived. Equity Bank’s social agenda has, in the case of the Ugandan market, been used to uplift several vulnerable and hitherto deprived groups including refugees who will be the focus of this news article or feature.
Since the year 2018, Equity Bank (which has been in Uganda for now 16 years) has been doing work in 9 of the 13 refugee settlements we have in Uganda. And the impact has been tremendous.
The Bank has deepened its brand awareness about itself among stakeholders doing refugee-related work and the refugees too have had the opportunity to be exposed to financial literacy skills and affordable capital to engage in economic activities, which is in line with the government of Uganda policy which permits refugees to own land and generally participate in all manner of economic activities.
In doing all this, Equity Bank has been able to amplify and accelerate the realization of the GoU and UN agencies’ grand objectives all of which are aimed at ensuring that the not less than 1.7m refugees in Uganda live a dignified life.
And to deepen our understanding of the interventions that have been undertaken and the impact that has had for the refugees and other stakeholders, Mulengera News this Monday interviewed Mr. Derrick Kyambadde who serves as the Manager Social Projects at Equity Bank.
Kyambadde explained that firstly Equity Bank had impacted refugees through rendering services like monthly cash transfers from the UN agencies, which support their sustenance, to their respective settlements. According to the UN/WFP arrangement, households in refugee settlements get monthly allocations depending on the number of refugees living therein. Each refugee is entitled to Shs12,000 worth of support per month from WFP.
Previously, UN agencies used to deliver trucks full of food rations and other supplies which refugees would line up to receive. This would be done once a month but when COVID came, such logistical operations became complicated. Innovative thinking had to be engaged and that’s how support in-kind (by way of giving refugees physical things) began to be discouraged in favor of monthly cash distributions which Equity Bank is charged with enabling in at least 9 of the 13 refugee settlements we currently have in Uganda.
This is all digital cash distribution effected through individual refugee’s Bank or mobile money account. And Kyambadde says the would-be difficult cash disbursement exercise has been eased by the involvement of more than 311 agency banking agents scattered at the different refugee settlements. And gratefully, all of these agency banking agents are refugees and they actually serve both their fellow refugees and host community members who live within the vicinity of the refugee settlement.
Every month, Equity disburses such cash to not less than 135,000 individual refugees each of whom must have an account with Equity which has a branch in each of the refugee-hosting districts especially the 9 Refugee Settlements where Equity Bank is mandated to operate.
Each of the refugees who accepts taking up to cash transfer system, as opposed to in-kind support (there are some individual refugees who opted to continue receiving physical support from WFP as opposed to monthly cash), gets to be allocated an ATM card that is different and made to suit unique needs of refugees.
“We are proud as Equity to have contributed to all this job creation through agency banking and towards restoration of dignity for the refugees who don’t have to be dehumanized with having to line up [to receive physical support] anymore,” Kyambadde explained during the Monday interview.
He is also grateful that the uptake and acceptability of the cash transfer system began to spectacularly expand following the outbreak of COVID especially during the year 2021 and onwards. The initial hesitation that was experienced during the pioneering years of 2018-2019 has gradually been disappearing as more refugees opt for cash transfers through Equity Bank.
Kyambadde says his teams have had to be patient and relentless in explaining and sensitizing individual refugees about the benefits of embracing the cash system as opposed to receiving physical supplies.
In the end, Equity Bank has achieved growing brand awareness and recognition among the country’s more than 1.7m refugees and among the international UN agencies which have come to learn of Equity Bank’s available and capability when it comes to availing affordable and high quality banking services among members of the refugee community.
Kyambadde says that currently there are more than 15 UN agencies which are more than prepared to work with Equity Bank to render all manner financial literacy and inclusion-related services; because they come to learn of its capabilities first hand. And when it comes to market share (offering financial services to refugees in all the 13 refugee settlements), Equity Bank currently controls or boasts of 45% and still growing as Kyambadde says, things can only get better now that the learning phase or period is clearly behind them.
They are actually in more refugee settlements than any of the other providers of similar services. These include PostBank, Opportunity Bank and UGAFODE. The leading telecoms (namely MTN and Airtel) are equally involved; offering money transfer-related services to people in refugee settlements. Digital cash transfers and being able to leverage agency banking, whose introduction in Uganda had a lot to do with Equity Bank’s innovativeness and far-sightedness, have been some of the game changers enabling Equity Bank to remain on top of the game in the refugee space.
Kyambadde says there is plenty of potential going forward because the recent statistics by UNHCR indicated that of the 1.7m refugees currently living and thriving in Uganda, not less than 800,000 are bankable.
To Kyambadde, this simply means potential and opportunity to get new customers and grow the business for his employer. He is grateful that their involvement in the refugee space, as Equity Bank, hasn’t been in vain. He makes reference to the 135,000 accounts and new customers that have come on-board since 2018. In fact, when it comes to having many account holders, Equity Bank has 2.2m coming; only 2nd to Centenary Bank. He says already not less than 400,000 refugees are frequent users of Equity Banking services.
Besides supporting female refugees through the GROW Project for which Equity is among the implementing banks, Kyambadde also made reference to the loan products which are refugee-specific. Most of these are group loans advanced through refugee groups which are formed in consultation with local government leaders of the respective districts where the respective refugee settlements fall.
Currently more than 400 such groups have been established across the country and each comprises of not less than 10 members. Each group can get or take out up to Shs5m. This is meant to enable refugees, to whom the GoU has been allocating land, to effectively carry on with their business and trading activities serving communities both within the refugee settlements and among the neighboring or surrounding refugee hosting communities.
The loans are affordable for many refugees because no security is required. One’s membership to a group is taken to be sufficient security.
Then individual agents can also take out up to Shs40m to boost their businesses depending on what the mandatory assessment exercise discloses about one’s trustworthiness and capacity to repay. In that case, individual borrowing is permitted and many refugees who are already Equity Bank agents have benefited a lot from such prudent interventions by Equity Bank. In doing all these great interventions, Equity Bank closely works with international partners like the UN agencies, the GoU especially through the OPM and the respective district Local Governments.
Going forward, Derrick Kyambadde says that Equity Bank will be leveraging several things including automation to accelerate the delivery of financial inclusion and literacy services to people living in the refugee settlements and the surrounding host communities in the respective districts. He says with internet connectivity getting better every passing day, his employer will be prioritizing automation more than anything else. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
