Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Partner description:

Opportunity Bank Uganda Limited (OBUL) is a Tier I Financial Institution (full Commercial Bank), licensed by the Bank of Uganda, and is a leading micro-finance institution in Uganda. OBUL’s vision is to be the bank of choice for all who aspire to a life of dignity and purpose. There is a social mission focus at the bank’s core with the bank explicating stating their goal to transforms lives, embodied in their slogan of “Empower yourself, empower your future”. 

OBUL was founded in 1995 as a Micro Credit program from Food for the Hungry International (FHI) and is now owned by MyBucks SA (49%) a fintech company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Opportunity International group (43%) which focuses on transformation of communities. Other shareholders include Faulu Uganda (7%) and Food for the Hungry (1%).

OBUL has a network of 23 branches and 22 ATM Points distributed in the Central, Eastern, Western and Northern regions of the country. Alternative channels include Agents distributed across the country and Opportunity mobile banking system (Opportunity Kusiimu). OBUL is also a member of the Interswitch Network and their customers have access to over 400 Interswitch powered ATMS across the country.

A unique lending approach:

Kiva is working with OBUL specifically to finance their program to lend to refugees. OBUL as part of their impact mandate to deliver financial services to rural communities, has identified refugees as a key priority group for serving in 2019 and beyond. Refugees are high on the Bank’s agenda and OBUL is looking at both Nakivale and Rwamanja Settlement as an entry point to finance refugees, to better understand their livelihood and financial lives with a view to offering services which can enhance their opportunities to live independence, self-sufficient, meaningful lives. Kiva is partnering with OBUL to finance refugee loans (group, individual and small SME loan products), primarily to help de-risk the portfolio and allow the bank to expand it’s pilot program more quickly. Given OBUL’s position as a top tier institution in Uganda, their working partnership with UNCHR, combined with their institutional focus and shareholder expertise in digital financial inclusion, they are an ideal partner for Kiva to achieve scale in lending to refugees.