About 30 percent of Ugandans were living below the poverty line in 2019/20, a percentage point slightly lower than the 31 percent recorded in 2012/13. The poverty rate used in the World Bank study was based on revisions made to the poverty line by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) in 2021.
As such, efforts to stop, and somewhat eradicate poverty are always a sigh of relief. In Africa, several organizations continue to roll out programs to eradicate poverty. One such organization is Village Enterprise.
Founded in 1987 and currently operating in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, Village Enterprise is a non-profit that works to end extreme poverty in Africa. Building on over three decades of experience in Uganda, Village Enterprise works with large international nonprofits and conservation partners in northern, central, and western Uganda.
“The Village Enterprise model is around something called the Poverty Graduation Model. In this model, we do business skills training with individuals we have identified are living below the poverty line. We mentor them and also give them cash grants to start their businesses. With this model, it is a group of three that starts a business and thus the cash grants go to a group of three. This money is for starting businesses or further investing in their businesses and is not paid back,” Mercy Angela Nantongo, the Digital Product Manager at Village Enterprise noted.
She added: “To qualify for this program, we go to the field and do surveys to confirm whether someone is living through the poverty lines. After this identification, we do the trainings and mentorships and those that complete these trainings then qualify for the grants. The people we serve are determined by where they stay, what they own, and the information submitted in the survey.”
Nantongo noted that they are now incorporating financial technology (Fintech) in their operations to enable the beneficiaries to have sustainable businesses.
“We have introduced a digital solution that enables our groups to do record keeping and save their money digitally. This solution enables them to do their meetings, record their money digitally, and also keep track of their goals. We also deliver our cash grants via mobile money. But we are currently exploring better ways of doing this because remember the cash grants go to a group of three and a mobile money line is usually owned by one person. So, we are looking at better ways of ensuring that when this money is sent, all the three beneficiaries rightly use it for the intended purpose without misuse from a single individual,” Nantongo explained.
Village Enterprise has featured on Day 20 of 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative Season 5.
Run under HiPipo’s Include Everyone program that also encompasses other initiatives such as FinTech Landscape Exhibition, Women in FinTech Hackathon, Summit & Incubator, and the Digital and Financial Inclusion Summit and Digital Impact Awards Africa; the #40Days40FinTechs platform aptly provides a setting for the various players and stakeholders involved in digital and financial technology to exhibit their products and services. It also gives players a platform to share their ideas on how the unserved and underserved by the present financial systems can be brought into the fold.
With over 150 participants in the last four years, #40Days40FinTechs continues to be the world’s premier showcase event for innovations that are enabling underserved populations to join the digital economy space. We know that this can only get better owing to the inspiration and collaboration of our partners; Level One Project, Mojaloop Foundation, INFITX, Cyberplc Academy, Ideation Corner, and Crosslake Technologies. Most importantly, the initiative owes its continued success to the generous support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.