| dc.description.abstract | Financial services form the backbone of most economies and they are a key source of economic growth, dynamism and flexibility in advanced and industrialized countries as well as those that are emerging and developing like Uganda. The main objective of the study was to determine the socio-economic factors associated with access to financial institutions in Uganda. The sub-objectives of the study were; To determine the relationship between socio factors like type of place of residence, marital status, sex of household head and access to financial institutions in Uganda and to assess the relationship between economic factors like employment status of household head and access to financial institutions in Uganda. The study focused mainly on factors like sex, age, marital status, access to bank loans, access to mobile money services, and type of place of residence and education level. The study utilized secondary data from the Uganda National Household Survey (2016/17 UNHS) which was the sixth in itsseries of surveys. Data was analyzed at three levels namely; univariate using frequency tables, bivariate for measure of associations and multivariate level. At univariate level, the study found out that only 41.78% of the study population was having access to financial institutions. Access financial services was significantly associated with sex, type of residence, marital status, employment staus and age-group of the respondents these associations were significant at 95% level of confidence (p= 0.000) < 0.05). At multivariate level, marital status, type of residence, age, employment status, education level and access to bank loans predicted access to financial institutions.. More generally, the study found out that there was a significant relationship between socio factors like type of place of residence, marital status, sex of household head and access to financial institutions in Uganda and there was also a significant relationship between economic factors like employment status of household head and access to financial institutions in Uganda thus two hypotheses were not supported. There is thus need for the government of Uganda to extend financial services to rural areas, reduce provide loans at low interest rates, and provide financial education to her citizens in order to promote investment in the economy to help alleviate the problem of unemployment. | en_US |
