Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSDU) has asked government to have a strategic approach of increasing mobile phones hand sets to the poor to facilitate the financial inclusion strategy that seeks to reduce financial exclusion from 15 to 5% by 2022.

This call was made by Joseph Lutwama, the policy, legal and regulatory specialist at FSDU while speaking at the launch of the Financial Inclusion week 2017 at Kampala Serena Hotel.

Lutwama said that government should have a policy of ensuring that poor Ugandans ownership of mobile phones handsets increased at low price through cutting tax on mobile phones hand sets

He stated that 50% of Ugandans do not own mobile phones which put them at risk of facing financial exclusion to many financial services since it’s difficult for them to own bank accounts because they are farer way from such services.

Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSDU) is an independent not-for-profit company committed to promoting greater access to financial services in Uganda. FSD Uganda seeks to develop a more inclusive financial sector with a focus on low-income individuals (particularly women) and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). It support innovation, conduct research, help promote and improve policy, laws and regulation that shape the financial sector in Uganda.

FSD Uganda is funded by Department for International Development (DFID) UKaid  and is part of a network of nine financial inclusion organizations working  in the sub-Saharan region of Africa.