22 September 2021 Kampala, Uganda: Airtel Uganda will onboard 300 new Airtel Money agents, 400 Airtel Pay merchants, 500,000 active Airtel Money customers to reach the targeted 1 million newly registered Airtel Money customers in Northern Uganda. Improved access to mobile and mobile money services will empower marginalised groups such as youth, women, migrants, refugees, and micro-,small-,and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to lead productive and healthy lives by leveraging technology.

Airtel Uganda, a subsidiary of Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services with a presence in 14 countries across Africa, is collaborating with the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) to boost mobile money and bridge the digital finance divide to reach an additional 1 million customers in rural Northern parts of the country. This bold commitment build on the ongoing collaboration with UNCDF in implementing the “Leaving No One Behind in the Digital Era” strategy launched in 2019.

The partnership aims to support the National Government’s strategy, the Uganda National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2017 – 2022, to ensure women, youth and rural populations at large are reached by services of the finance sector whilst building the digital infrastructure necessary to broaden savings, investment, insurance and reduce barriers to access to financial services. The Airtel Uganda and UNCDF partnership will also increase digital financial services access and usage, and improve financial security through financial inclusion.

Airtel Uganda Managing Director, Manoj Murali, said: “Penetration of digital financial services into rural Uganda is often challenged by limited digital and financial infrastructure as well as inadequate access to affordable phones and the lack of relevant product offerings for women, youth, refugees and other vulnerable sectors of society. Our work with UNCDF, will enable us to deliver more service points in remote rural areas, helping to improve Uganda’s financial inclusion and driving digital growth for the wider economy.”

UNCDF Digital Regional Manager, East and Southern Africa, Mike McCaffrey said: “While digital services are key in contributing to the attainment of SDGs in Uganda and the world over, many people unfortunately still find it challenging to tap into this opportunity due to limited or lack of connectivity, devices, and client-centered digital services. By partnering with mobile telecom operators and digital money providers such as Airtel, UNCDF taps into the Market Systems Development approach to incentivize digital finance and digital innovation enablers to enter markets they may otherwise overlook, while addressing market challenges like improving infrastructure for connectivity and efficiencies for mobile money agents, and merchant payment points.”

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Enquiries
Airtel Uganda
Sumin Namaganda
Public Relations Manager
Sumin.Namaganda@ug.airtel.com

UNCDF
Rachael Kentenyingi
Knowledge Management Consultant
rachael.kentenyingi@uncdf.org

About Airtel Africa
Airtel Africa is a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries in Africa, primarily in East Africa and Central and West Africa.
Airtel Africa offers an integrated suite of telecommunications solutions to its subscribers, including mobile voice and data services as well as mobile money services both nationally and internationally.
The Group aims to continue providing a simple and intuitive customer experience through streamlined customer journeys.
www.airtel.africa

About UNCDF

The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 46 least developed countries (LDCs). With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers “last mile” finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. This last mile is where available resources for development are scarcest; where market failures are most pronounced; and where benefits from national growth tend to leave people excluded.

UNCDF’s financing models work through three channels: (1) inclusive digital economies, which connects individuals, households, and small businesses with financial eco-systems that catalyze participation in the local economy, and provide tools to climb out of poverty and manage financial lives; (2) local development finance, which capacitates localities through fiscal decentralization, innovative municipal finance, and structured project finance to drive local economic expansion and sustainable development; and (3) investment finance, which provides catalytic financial structuring, de-risking, and capital deployment to drive SDG impact and domestic resource mobilization.

By strengthening how finance works for poor people at the household, small enterprise, and local infrastructure levels, UNCDF contributes to SDG 1 on eradicating poverty with a focus on reaching the last mile and addressing exclusion and inequalities of access. At the same time, UNCDF deploys its capital finance mandate in line with SDG 17 on the means of implementation, to unlock public and private finance for the poor at the local level. By identifying those market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact in helping to reach the last mile, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs and currently to 28 of 169 targets.