Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSD Uganda), earlier this week, convened financial service providers, policymakers, donors, and development partners for a landmark dissemination workshop presenting the findings of its Young Women’s Financial Inclusion (YWFI) initiative. Themed “From Research to Action: Deepening Financial Inclusion for Young Women in Uganda,” the workshop marks the culmination of Year One of a three-year action research programme focused on the approximately 4.5 million Ugandan women aged 16–24, nearly 10% of the country’s total population.

Presenting the findings, FSD Uganda’s Director Research and Insights, Joseph Lutwama noted that while efforts to improve financial inclusion have traditionally focused on women in general, limited attention has been given to the unique challenges faced by young women specifically. “We have made strides as a country, but the evidence tells us that young women have largely been left behind,” he said.

A Decade of Progress, But the Gap Persists

Uganda’s formal financial inclusion rate grew from 52% to 68% between 2013 and 2023, a trajectory driven largely by the rapid expansion of mobile money. Yet the gender gap in financial inclusion has not only persisted but widened, from 1 percentage point in 2018 to 6 percentage points by 2023. Young women remain among the most underserved segments in the financial system.

Key disparities documented by the YWFI research include:

• Mobile phone ownership: 53% for young women versus 71% for young men
• Bank account usage: 8% for young women versus 13% for young men
• SACCO usage: 4% for young women versus 14% for young men
• Registered mobile money use: a 10-percentage-point gap unchanged since 2013

Young women also carry disproportionate care burdens, averaging 5.2 hours of unpaid work per day compared to 1.6 hours for young men, a reality that shapes the occupations they can pursue and the financial services they can access.

Lutwama identified access to national identification cards as one of the most significant structural barriers. National IDs are a mandatory requirement for opening bank accounts and registering mobile money, yet a significant portion of young women remain locked out of these services. He also acknowledged the efforts of the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) in registering a majority of Ugandans, noting that the remaining challenge lies in empowering young women to fully understand and utilise the opportunities that come with possessing an ID.

Five Segments, Five Opportunity Maps

A central contribution of the YWFI research is a data-driven segmentation of young Ugandan women into five distinct groups based on their financial service usage patterns. Each segment presents a different profile of needs, barriers, and entry points for deeper inclusion:

• Formal and Informal Users (33%): Use a combination of formal and informal services; the most financially active segment, but requiring support to deepen savings, access credit, and manage risks.
• Formal-only Account Holders (28%): Predominantly mobile money users in their own names; show potential to expand into credit and insurance products if barriers to bank access are addressed.
• Formal-only Users (20%): Mostly unregistered mobile money users accessing services through others’ accounts; require support to transition to registered use and build independent transaction histories.
• Informal Only (5%): Overwhelmingly rural, with very limited phone ownership but strong savings discipline through community groups; need trust-building and digital on-ramp solutions.
• Unserved (14%): Largely younger, with very low ownership of phones and IDs and high dependency rates; require a staged approach combining livelihoods support with appropriately timed financial services.

Together, the four less-served segments account for two-thirds of all young women aged 16–24 in Uganda, representing both the scale of the challenge and the magnitude of the market opportunity.

Calls to Action

FSD Uganda’s research team identified five cross-cutting priority actions for the financial sector ecosystem:

• Strengthen foundational enablers, particularly access to personal mobile phones and national IDs
• Facilitate and incentivise transitions from unregistered to registered mobile money use, preserving transaction histories in the process
• Link financial services to livelihoods, so that income growth drives genuine demand for savings, credit, and insurance products
• Design protective savings and insurance products tailored to health and education-related risks, the most common and disruptive shocks for young women
• Build trust and financial capability, especially in rural and informally served communities

Lutwama also highlighted low confidence levels as a key challenge, noting that social norms have historically constrained young women’s independent engagement with financial institutions. FSD Uganda is therefore encouraging stakeholders to develop affordable and accessible financial products tailored to the specific needs of young women, while fostering enabling social environments at the community level.

Looking Ahead: Year Two and Beyond

The workshop also served as the launchpad for YWFI Year Two, which will shift the programme’s emphasis from research to action. FSD Uganda will partner with willing financial service providers to co-design, prototype, and pilot financial products and services tailored to the needs of the four less-served segments. The programme will also engage with regulators and policymakers to explore enabling reforms that support innovation in this space.

The findings are expected to inform policy interventions and the development of financial products aimed at increasing financial inclusion among young women across Uganda.