GROW Project Coordinator Dr. Ruth Kasolo Biyinzika has challenged financial institutions to move beyond strategies and commitments and use data to develop financial products that respond to the diverse needs of women-owned businesses.
Biyinzika said financial institutions must embrace a data-driven approach to better understand the different categories of women entrepreneurs they serve and use that information to design appropriate financial services.
She made the remarks on Saturday, August 29, 2026, during the closing ceremony of the Women’s Market in Kampala, where Hon. Mary Grace Kuteesa, State Minister for Gender and Culture Affairs, was the chief guest.
Biyinzika also commended the institutions and development partners supporting efforts to strengthen women’s access to finance, particularly the Bank of Uganda, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and the World Bank through the GROW Project.
“I would like to thank the Bank of Uganda for telling the leadership that they are data-centric, and whatever we are doing is because of their support, as well as the Ministry of Labour and Gender and Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. We want to thank the World Bank for the GROW Project, and we’ve always got 100 per cent support from Serena,” she said.
She identified data as a critical foundation for transforming Uganda’s women’s financial inclusion agenda from broad policy commitments into measurable economic outcomes.
Biyinzika said women entrepreneurs should not be treated as a single market because their businesses have different financial needs, cash-flow patterns, risks and growth prospects.
A small retailer, for example, may require short-term working capital to purchase stock, while a manufacturer may need equipment financing to increase production. An established company may instead require investment capital to expand into new markets.
Financial institutions, she said, therefore need better information about their women customers to ensure that products are matched to the size, nature and stage of their businesses.
The WE-Fi Code is part of this effort, with an emphasis on strengthening institutions’ capacity to collect and use data that distinguishes different categories of women entrepreneurs.
Such information can help financial institutions identify underserved groups, understand demand and develop products based on evidence rather than assumptions.
“Bank of Uganda are telling a data-centric journey and by March next year we shall be registered in many of these processes, and we want to talk in figures,” Biyinzika said.
The Women’s Market initiative seeks to shift the conversation from simply providing women with access to financial institutions to ensuring that the services available to them are appropriate and capable of supporting business growth.
Access to an account or a financial institution does not necessarily translate into meaningful financial inclusion if women cannot obtain suitable credit, savings products, insurance or investment services.
For businesses, the right financial product can become a growth instrument.
Working capital can help a trader increase stock. Equipment finance can enable a manufacturer to raise production. Longer-term investment finance can help an established enterprise expand and create employment.
The challenge for financial institutions is therefore to understand the market well enough to provide products that address these specific needs.
The initiative also featured the Women’s Market Playbook, developed with the involvement of the Financial Alliance for Women.
The playbook provides a framework for financial institutions to better understand women as a diverse customer and enterprise market and encourages institutions to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach.
It raises practical questions for financial institutions: Who are their women customers? What businesses do they operate? What type of financing do they need? What prevents them from accessing finance? And what happens after they receive financial services?
Answering these questions through reliable data can help institutions make better commercial decisions while improving access to appropriate financial services for women.
Biyinzika recognised 55 stakeholders from financial institutions for supporting the women’s market agenda.
Among the institutions recognised were Centenary Bank, Vision Bank, Finance Trust Bank, FINCA, Housing Finance Bank, Opportunity Bank, Ecobank, Citi Bank, Stanbic Bank and UGAFODE, alongside other participating institutions.
Their participation places the financial sector at the centre of efforts to translate the women’s market strategy into practical financial services.
However, Biyinzika said the success of the initiative would ultimately be determined by what institutions do with the data and strategies at their disposal.
The expectation is that financial institutions will use market information to develop products and services that respond to the actual needs of women-owned businesses.
Biyinzika also recognised Serena Cavicchi, Senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank and Task Team Lead for Uganda’s GROW Project, for her contribution to the initiative.
“We want to thank the World Bank for the GROW Project and we’ve always got 100 per cent support from Serena,” she said.
She also thanked the Bank of Uganda, the Ministry of Labour and Gender and the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development for their contribution to the programme.
The initiative brings together government, financial institutions and development partners, with each playing a role in strengthening the ecosystem supporting women entrepreneurs.
Biyinzika’s emphasis on disaggregated data reflects a broader shift towards evidence-based financial inclusion.
Broad statistics can mask important differences among women entrepreneurs. Disaggregated data can show which women are borrowing, saving or using other formal financial services, as well as which groups remain underserved.
It can also help identify the sectors in which women-owned enterprises are concentrated and where viable businesses face difficulties accessing finance.
For financial institutions, such information can strengthen market intelligence and product development. For policymakers, it can support better interventions. For women entrepreneurs, it can improve the likelihood of accessing services that match their business needs.
The closing ceremony was attended by Hon. Mary Grace Kuteesa, State Minister for Gender and Culture Affairs, who served as chief guest.
Her participation underscored the Government’s role in creating an environment that enables women to participate more actively in economic activity.
The event brought together government officials, financial institutions and development partners to discuss how women can be better supported as entrepreneurs and economic actors.
The push for women’s financial inclusion also presents a significant commercial opportunity for financial institutions.
When women-owned businesses obtain appropriate financing, they can increase stock, invest in equipment, raise production and access new markets.
Business growth can in turn generate employment and create demand for goods and services supplied by other enterprises, spreading economic benefits beyond individual businesses.
For financial institutions, understanding the women’s market can therefore help create stronger products and build long-term relationships with a potentially significant customer base.
Biyinzika said the next phase should focus on measuring the impact of financial services rather than simply counting the number of women who have accessed them.
The key questions, she said, should include whether women are receiving suitable financing, whether their businesses are expanding, and whether the financing is contributing to income generation and employment.
This is where her call to “talk in figures” becomes important.
Data can show how much financing is reaching women-owned enterprises, which sectors are receiving capital, how many businesses are growing and which categories of entrepreneurs remain underserved.
Biyinzika pointed to March 2027 as an important milestone in the ongoing process, saying further registration and progress would be recorded across the initiatives.
However, registration alone will not determine the success of the women’s market agenda.
The more important test will be whether institutions are collecting useful data, using it to understand their customers and translating that knowledge into better financial products and services.
The Women’s Market Playbook provides the strategic framework. The WE-Fi Code strengthens the data-driven approach, while the World Bank’s GROW Project provides development-partner support.
The Bank of Uganda and government ministries provide institutional backing, while the 55 financial-sector stakeholders provide a platform for translating the agenda into financial services.
But the decisive stage is implementation.
Women entrepreneurs will ultimately judge the success of the initiative by what they can access, how suitable the services are and what those services enable them to achieve.
A strategy becomes meaningful when it changes institutional behaviour. A financial product becomes valuable when it solves a real business problem. And financial inclusion becomes economic transformation when finance enables enterprises to grow.
Biyinzika’s call to “talk in figures” therefore provides a clear benchmark for the next phase of Uganda’s women’s financial inclusion agenda.
The numbers should eventually show whether more women are accessing appropriate financial services, whether businesses are expanding, whether jobs and incomes are being created and whether women-owned enterprises are becoming more resilient and competitive.
The Women’s Market may have closed, but the real test is only beginning.
From playbook to profit, the journey will be complete when strategies become products, products become capital, capital becomes business growth, and business growth translates into jobs, incomes and sustainable economic opportunity for Uganda’s women.
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