The Effect of Micro-Credit on Women Empowerment in Uganda: The Case of BRAC

Abstract

Women empowerment has continuously become a key concern on the Uganda’s development agenda. This is aimed at improving their status in the society and also to strengthen their self-esteem. Various programs have been implemented to economically empower women which include strengthening of the girl child education and implementing of favorable financial reforms that allow women to access financial services. Although, there is a general consensus that access to financial services affect economic development, its impact on women empowerment especially at household level still remains unclear. This study uses data from a field survey among women in Mukono district who are members of BRAC microfinance institution to investigate the impact of micro-credit accessibility to women empowerment in Uganda. The main results from the study suggest that as women access micro-credit, their likelihood of becoming empowered increases if compared to women who have no access to financial services. The results from this study speak to policy in a number of ways. First, in the interest of empowering women in the country, there is a need to design special financial reforms that can make it slightly cheaper/easier for women to access financial services not only from microfinance institutions and SACCOs but also from commercial banks. Secondly, there is a great need to further emphasize girl child education not only by the rules of law but also through economic support say in terms of providing scholastic materials and also for school drop outs, vocational trainings should be given greater attention