Success Stories

Designing Education Loans to Bridge a Financing Gap for Nursing Students in Uganda

Southwestern Uganda faces a severe shortage of trained health professionals, and it is also home to many vulnerable, unemployed youth. Banyan Global tackled these issues by bridging a financial barrier for aspiring nurses to complete their education and enter the medical profession. Banyan Global brokered a partnership between Equity Bank and the Mayanja Memorial Training Institute in Southwestern Uganda to tailor an education loan for would-be students without the means to pay for their tuition and living expenses upfront.

The loan allows students to pay their fees in small, regular installments over the course of their studies. The partnership between the bank and training institute has led to win-win outcomes for all parties:

• By being able to access a quality education, young nurses can secure their future livelihood in a growing and stable sector, promote much-needed health service delivery, and become familiar with formal financial services.
• The institute, launched and registered in 2008, is able to increase access to quality education for poor youth who wish to serve their communities as professional nurses.
• Equity Bank Uganda is able to grow its portfolio among young professionals who will have diversified financing needs in the future, which for many includes starting their own clinical practices.

With technical support from Banyan Global through the United States Agency for International Development-funded Banking on Health project, Equity Bank tailored its generic student loan product, which had targeted the guardians of primary school students, so that it is accessible directly to people between the ages of 18 and 24 and fits the Mayanja Memorial Training Institute’s semester schedule. In exchange for guarantees from the institute, including holding the certificate of students who do not complete their loan payments, Equity Bank has reduced the interest rate on this product. The bank is considering additional modifications to the product, which was launched in May 2009. Depending on its continued success, Equity Bank will work with Banyan Global to scale it up to different training institutes in Uganda and the East African region.