The Ugandan subsidiary of VisionFund International, which is owned by US-based NGO World Vision, recently opened a branch in the Moyo region of Uganda, serving refugees and local residents near the Palorinya settlement for refugees from South Sudan. About 121,000 refugees and 48,000 Ugandans live in the area. During 2020, VisionFund Uganda plans to open three more branches targeting areas with large numbers of refugees, including one branch serving the town of Yumbe and the nearby settlement Bidibidi, where 230,000 refugees live.
In Palorinya, VisionFund Uganda is providing loans and financial literacy training to savings groups previously organized by World Vision. To avoid the appearance of favoring either community, most of these savings groups are “mainly comprised of women from both the refugee and host communities.” As of March 2020, the branch has disbursed loans totaling USD 80,000.
Referring to the needs of refugees elsewhere in the world, VisionFund International CEO Michael Mithika said, “VisionFund Uganda is leading the way in working with refugee populations, but we continue to support other vulnerable communities including in the fragile states of Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and internally displaced persons in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan States in Myanmar.”
VisionFund International operates in 28 countries with total assets of USD 688 million and a gross loan portfolio of USD 494 million outstanding to 1.1 million borrowers. Most of these are women, and about a third are farmers. In addition to loans, the organization provides savings products, insurance services, financial education and business skills training.
VisionFund International’s parent organization, World Vision, is a US-based Christian relief and development organization that brought in revenue of USD 1.14 billion during 2019.
Sources and Additional Resources
Press release provided to MicroCapital by Miranda Barham
VisionFund Uganda webpage
https://www.visionfund.org/where-we-work/africa/uganda
VisionFund International homepage
https://www.visionfund.org/
World Vision homepage
https://www.worldvision.org/
More news on delivering financial services to refugees
https://www.microcapital.org/?s=refugee
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