Advancing Financial Inclusion for Refugees & Forcibly Displaced People
Congratulations to RUFI, winner of the European Microfinance Award 2024!
RURAL FINANCE INITIATIVE (RUFI) - Uganda
RUFI has been selected as winner to receive the €100,000 European Microfinance Award 2024
RUFI was originally established in South Sudan in 2008. In 2016, conflict forced many South Sudanese to flee to neighbouring Uganda (which hosts the largest refugee population in Africa), and RUFI followed its clients to the refugee settlements there. Now operating from six branches in five settlements in Uganda, it remains a refugee-led organisation (80% of RUFI staff are FDPs) that serve other FDPs from South Sudan and the DRC, as well as clients from host communities. RUFI provides group loans, VSLA loans, cross-border collateralised individual loans, green energy loans, agri-loans to farmer cooperatives, and implements a business incubator called (REMEDY) – a program to support groups of new refugees by offering business training and financing under the LOG (Loan, Own-capital, Grant) model. RUFI also engages in advocacy through a ‘local leadership’ approach, working with local governments and communities, for instance to secure arable land for cultivation by refugees, and creating agreements for resource sharing between host community and refugee groups.
Read the press release in English, en français und Deutsch.
Learn more about the finalists and semifinalists of this year’s European Microfinance Award in the e-MFP's publication:
Advancing Financial Inclusion for Refugees & Forcibly Displaced People, November 2024
Advancing Financial Inclusion for Refugees & Forcibly Displaced People
Faire progresser l'inclusion financière des réfugiés et des personnes déplacées de force
Promoviendo la Inclusión Financiera para los Refugiados y las Personas Desplazadas por la Fuerza
AL MAJMOUA - LEBANON
Runner-up
Al Majmoua is Lebanon's largest MFI, operating in a country with a long history hosting displaced people (most notably from Palestine and Syria), and which since 2019 has been in the midst of a protracted and catastrophic economic crisis. Despite these immense pressures, Al Majmoua continues to offer various financial products to FDPs and non-FDPs alike, including group and individual nano loans, as well as individual business loans, complemented by financial literacy training, entrepreneurship and business management training, delivered through classroom training, individual coaching, and a mobile app, with an emphasis on economic empowerment of women and youth. Additionally, Al Majmoua provides seed funding and cash-for-work, and also participates in the Referral Information Management System (RIMS) platform, to refer FDPs to other organisations for services such as basic assistance, healthcare, education, shelter, legal aid, and support for gender-based violence.
PALESTINE FOR CREDIT AND DEVELOPMENT (FATEN) - OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
Runner-up
Palestine for Credit and Development (FATEN) is a non-profit MFI operating across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, a region with a long history of protracted displacement, and punctuated by periodic conflicts and humanitarian crises. FATEN supports FDPs with a range of financial and non-financial services through a branch network in conflict-affected areas. This includes: emergency loans with near-zero interest rates, extended grace periods and streamlined loan processes; dedicated start-up loans for youth and women entrepreneurs; microloans for small enterprises; agriculture loans; and clean energy and housing improvement loans. FATEN also runs ‘community cohesion’ programs: an Education Fund provides university scholarships for refugees’ children; a Health Insurance Fund promotes health awareness and protection; and a Training Fund offers capacity building in management, marketing and technology.