Financial Inclusion of the Poor in Developing Economies in the Twenty-first Century: Qualitative Evidence from Rural Uganda

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study is to examine financial inclusion of the poor by formal financial services’ providers in developing economies with data obtained from rural Uganda. Exploratory research design was used in this study and 50 poor households’ heads were interviewed to get their responses on being financially included by microfinance deposit-taking institutions (MDIs) in Uganda. The qualitative data collected from the interviews were analyzed using NVivo software and verbatim text were used to explain emergent themes and sub-themes from this study. The findings revealed that suitable initial account opening fees, minimum deposit requirement, limited eligibility requirements, permanence of use, depth of financial services and products, relevance of financial services/products in terms of convenience, flexibility, reliability, continuity, safety, dignity of treatment (clients’ protection), and welfare improvement are important determinants of financial inclusion of the poor in developing economies, especially in rural Uganda.

KEYWORDS:

• Financial inclusion
• rural Uganda
• microfinance deposit-taking institutions
• exploratory research design
• human psychology
• the poor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors and no funding was received for this study.