THE MONEY TRUTH! Census 2024 Report Exposes Ugandan's Financial Secrets

By Evans Najuna

Savings are an important determinant of both individual and national wellbeing. Typically, households employ a wide range of mechanisms for saving. The choice of savings mechanism has important micro and macroeconomic implications.

According to the recently released National population and housing census 2024, household respondents were asked which type of saving mechanisms used in the last 12 months preceding the exercise.

Results show that most Ugandans save on mobile money (20%) , followed by keeping cash at home (17%) and only 7% were using commercial banks.

The same variations were observed by sex and sub-regions. Regionally, Buganda had the highest number of savers with the most used mechanism being mobile money at 28%.

West Nile had its highest percentage of the population keeping cash at home on a proportion of 19%.

The highest percentage of those saving with SACCOs was from Bunyoro sub region at 10%.

The highest percentage of those using commercial banks was 13%, and these were from Buganda sub-region and the least percentage of those who were using commercial banks (2.2%) was from west Nile sub-region.

In trying to understand the age pattern viz-viz the working group, the National population housing census (NPHC2024) sought to assess how Ugandans aged 16 years and above used different financial services providers to save money. The results were used as a proxy indication for use of financial inclusion.

The indicators showed that the overall and the highest percentage of the population who used formal saving were at 28%. These indicators also showed that overall, a higher percentage of male savers were 30% in Uganda who use formal institutions compared to female savers (25%).

However, there are more female savers using informal institutions (15%) compared to their male counterparts (11%). There was no differential in sex of persons that used excluded mechanisms (19%) each.

In the rationale of rural-urban setup and in correspondence with savings culture, the biggest percentage of 20%, who used excluded mechanisms of saving were living in rural areas.

The biggest percentage of 64% of those who used formal mechanisms of saving were people who attained post-secondary levels of education and above. Buganda sub region had the highest percentage (37.4%) of users of formal institutions to save and it also had the least percentage (9%) of users of informal institutions.

On the usage of Formal Financial Institutions for saving, the results indicate that mobile money (20%) recorded the highest proportion that used formal service providers for saving, followed thereafter by Commercial banks with (7%) of the population while 5 percent of the population used SACCOs for saving and the least proportion of savers (1%) who use formal institutions use credit institutions.

Overall, 32% of the population used Mobile money services in the 30 days before the day of enumeration. It was also revealed that 26% of those who transacted used their own registered mobile money accounts followed by 3% who used mobile money agents or other registered mobile money accounts.

Higher percentage of males (34%) made mobile money transactions 30 days prior to the enumeration date than females (30%). At least every four in ten persons aged 25-54 years had transacted using mobile money in the 30 days preceding the census.

KEY FINDINGS

–Saving Mechanisms: Mobile money was the most used mechanism for saving (20%) followed by keeping cash at home (17%).

– Availability of Financial Services: VSLAs were the most common, with 75% of the parishes having at least one VSLA. Mobile money services were in 69% of the parishes

–Beneficiaries of Government Programs: SAGE has the highest percentage (18%) of beneficiaries of a government program.

NOTE: Financial inclusion is defined as having access to and using a broad range of quality and affordable financial services which help ensure a person’s financial security. It is a vital component of Uganda’s economic development, enabling citizens to access essential financial services and participate in the formal economy. This will ultimately provide an overview of the current state of financial inclusion in Uganda exploring both formal and informal financial institutions in expanding access to financial services.