Partners:

• Five Talents Uganda (FTU), Kampala, Uganda
• Anglican Church of Uganda

Program Type and Services:

• Christian Microfinance Institution: “Credit-Led”

Group lending methodology: FTU clients form groups and thus draw up a constitution together and democratically elect their leaders. They commit themselves as individual clients within the group and save together. They apply for loan support from FTU as a group and thus the loan is guaranteed by the group. Once approved by FTU, FTU shares expected repayment schedule with the group. After servicing several loans to the group, members are able to graduate to the individual category.

Individual lending methodology: Some individuals graduate from the group methodology to individual lending methodology. Individuals begin to save and then approach FTU for loans. When applications are accepted, they bring guarantors for the loan offered. Once approved by FTU, FTU gives the repayment schedule to the client.

FTU offers the following loan options: working capital loans, salary loans, asset acquisition loans, and home improvement loans.

Training and Resource Examples:

• Business skills development: leadership, financial planning, management, cash flow, record keeping, pricing
• Loan insurance
• Christian values

The Program

Five Talents Uganda (FTU) officially opened its doors to the community in June 2006.  An exciting expansion, FTU seeks to assist thousands of poor entrepreneurs using a combination of microloans, business training and spiritual development.

Five Talents has been working in Uganda since 2001 in partnership with the Anglican Church of Uganda. FTU is a merger of three of FTI’s previously independent microfinance programs, which were started in the three Dioceses of Namirembe, Kigezi and South Rwenzori.  Three branch locations have been established in Kabale, Kasese and Kampala. The Church of Uganda, in collaboration with Five Talents, decided to consolidate these three programs under one legal organization, creating an efficient delivery system for financial services to the poor. The office serves as the primary point of contact for all work undertaken by Five Talents in Uganda, including short-term trips for business professionals to conduct seminars for the clients.

During 2012, Five Talents Uganda expanded into the south (into the district of Kisoro, on the border with DRC and Rwanda), and into Kitgum in the north.

Communities in Northern Uganda have suffered the effects of a long-running conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda, which lasted over twenty years. Five Talents conducted a feasibility study in 2007 in Kitgum, when many communities were still displaced, but at the time funding was not available for this expansion.

In June 2011, a team from Five Talents Uganda and FTUK returned to the Diocese of Kitgum (which covers the northern districts of Kitgum, Pader, Lamwo and Agago) to assess the needs and feasibility of establishing a new Five Talents office in the north. The team found that after years of displacement the majority of the population have returned home. Plans were then put in place to expand into northern Uganda during 2012.

Five Talents Uganda began working in Kitgum in February 2012, with an initial focus on training in business and financial management skills. In the early recovery stages of post-conflict reconstruction, the key issues that need to be addressed are the rebuilding of skills and revitalizing of the local and regional economy. Five Talents Uganda is therefore picking up from where aid agencies have left (many established successful savings groups), by providing additional training and responding to the need for loan capital among the groups, which will enable them to build on, or start, small businesses.

The Need

By the end of 2012, Five Talents Uganda seeks to reach a total of 5,180 clients, including the expansion into Kitgum.

We'd appreciate your continued prayers for this growing program. Please support our work in Uganda either by making a one-time donation or by signing up to "Walk with Us" as a recurring donor. A monthly gift of $10 will transform up to five lives.

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Updated December 2012