KAMPALA, Uganda — KCB Bank Uganda has rolled out low-cost, long-term financing packages aimed at commercializing local agricultural value chains and boosting small business capital.
The credit intervention, highlighted during the PEWOSA Trade Fair in Lubiri, targets structural bottlenecks that limit production capacity for local processors, women entrepreneurs and youth groups.
Despite coffee driving about $2.4 billion in annual export earnings for Uganda, smallholders face severe margins erosion due to post-harvest losses and high credit costs. The bank’s intervention targets these exact gaps by funding the acquisition of modern solar dryers and eco-friendly pulpers, allowing rural agricultural cooperatives to transition from raw bean sales into higher-value export markets.
Wensi Niwagaba, the SME manager at KCB Bank Uganda, noted that the specialized funding lines target under-group production, agro-marketing and agro-distribution across the manufacturing, construction, transport and agricultural sectors. To expand the reach of these credit lines, the bank is mobilizing rural communities into organized associations to provide financial literacy training through its national branch network.
Concurrently, the financial institution is deploying its KCB FLME platform, a tailored initiative designed to address asset ownership disparities among women in business. Though women provide the majority of agricultural labor in Uganda, they own less than 20 percent of productive land and processing infrastructure.
Gladys Nalukenge, the relationship manager for women in business at KCB Bank Uganda, stated that the program utilizes alternative risk assessment structures to offer flexible financial products modeled around the specific operational realities of women traders and cooperative leaders.
For urban and regional small enterprises facing seasonal cash flow constraints, the bank has capped short-term working capital credit facilities at 500 million Ugandan shillings. The enterprise support packages are backed by a digital account opening platform accessible via mobile USSD code *244#, designed to integrate unbanked traders into the formal financial ecosystem.
