Refugees and Their Money: The Business Case for Providing Financial Services to Refugees

Rwanda has been hosting refugees for over 20 years. In this context of long-term displacement, governments, humanitarian agencies, the development sector and other stakeholders must provide long-term solutions for refugees, such as financial services, which can support market-based livelihoods. FSDA, UNHCR and AFR partnered on this study to assess both the demand for financial services in refugee populations and the business case for Rwandan financial institutions to provide these services.

The study had two objectives: first, to provide market intelligence to build a sound business case for financial institutions to profitably serve the forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) population; and second, to better understand the financial needs of the FDP population in Rwanda to enable financial service providers (FSPs) to effectively target the segment.

This report is the result of a triangulation of four different research activities: segmenting and sizing refugees as a market for financial services; translating the segments into business cases to assess potential for serving this market; creating profiles of segments based on field research in refugee camps; and assessing the regulatory environment to provide financial services for refugees.