An assessment of the factors that influence household savings in central Uganda

Abstract

Much as savings plays an important role in economic development process, it has been neglected very much in favor of credit in rural communities particularly in developing countries. Against this backdrop the study sought to determine the factors that influence household savings in Central Uganda. The study used the 2018/19 Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS) which was implemented by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The data was analyzed at univariate, bivariate and multivariate levels.

Overall, a total of 812 households from Central Uganda were interviewed and included in the study. Findings from the study revealed that majority of the household (58%) were basically rural based. Also, the study revealed that households headed by men had more savings (86%) as compared to those headed by females (82%).

Following the findings, the study recommended government and nongovernmental organizations to provide regular, timely and need based capacity building trainings for VSLA and SACCO participants; Link VSLA and SACCO participants with formal microfinance institutions; conduct regular monitoring and follow ups by concerned government body; different concerned stakeholders in the sub-region including government, nongovernmental organizations, microfinance institutions and others need to work in coordinated manner to solve the recurrent challenges of VSLA and SACCO participants in Central Uganda and finally government and/or nongovernmental organizations need to take best practices and lessons from existing households saving methods like VSLAs, Mobile money SACCO and expand their initiative to address more impoverished households.