When it comes to cash, women avoid borrowing more than men - Report

This report arose out of the Financial Capability Survey which also shows that women are less effective when it comes to timely paying of bills compared to men.

The report covers the period between December 2020 and April 13 this year, and cover areas such as household incomes, insurance uptake, saving and financial management, among others.

Money matters Pulse

At least 3,338 households in rural and urban areas, which is representative of 22.8 million working adult Ugandans between 16 years and above, were interviewed for this report.

Women avoid unnecessary borrowing

According to the report, 98.7 percent of women will avoid unnecessary borrowing when they find that they do not have money to meet their day-to-day expenditures compared to 98 percent of men.

Overall, the report notes that 98.5 percent of adults in Uganda will avoid unnecessary borrowing.

Dr Susan Kavuma, an economist from the Makerere University School of Economics, said the differences between men and women when it comes to unnecessary borrowing might be because women are risk averse, while others don’t have the required collateral.

Kavuma also said, compared with men, women have not undertaken the same level of bankable projects required by banks to advance loans.

The survey was conducted to discover how working adult Ugandans use borrowed money, how many are active savers, how many can trace their finances, how they achieve financial goals and what good budgeting practices they use.

Ugandans are poor at paying bills on time

The report revealed that working Ugandans are poor at timely payment of bills with the survey noting that only 28.5 percent of working Ugandans pay their bills on time.

However, men scored relatively better in terms of timely payment of bills compared to women.

More than 31 percent of male working Ugandans pay their bills on time compared to about 25 percent of women.

Financial management

The report indicates that 65 percent of working men strive to achieve set financial goals compared to about 54 percent of women.

The report also notes that 63 percent of men budget for their incomes and expenses compared to 55 percent of women, while about 68.5 percent of men keep track of their finances compared to 65.5 percent of women.