By Mulengera ReportersOpportunity Bank Uganda says the Government’s GROW Project is changing the financial fortunes of women entrepreneurs by removing one of the biggest barriers to accessing formal credit—the requirement for collateral security—while taking banking services into communities where the bank has no branches.Annet Nakato, Kikuubo Branch Manager at Opportunity Bank and the bank’s GROW Project focal person, said the programme has enabled the institution to reach women who previously struggled to access finance because they lacked assets to pledge as security.She said collateral remains a particularly significant challenge for women in regions such as Busoga and Bugisu, where many entrepreneurs operate small businesses without property or other assets registered in their names.“Grow has helped us as Opportunity Bank to serve, to easily serve women,” Nakato said.Under the programme, Opportunity Bank can provide refugees with loans of up to Shs200 million without collateral, while women with smaller and emerging businesses can access loans of up to Shs2 million unsecured, according to Nakato.The intervention is being delivered through Opportunity Bank’s 25 branches countrywide, alongside community-based service points known as SPOCs, which are designed to take financial services closer to potential borrowers.The bank operates across Kampala, Central Uganda, Ankole, West Nile, Lango, Teso, Busoga and Bugisu, among other areas. Its outreach includes refugee-hosting districts such as Isingiro, Kamwenge and Kyegegwa.In the Tooro region, for example, the bank serves Kamwenge, Kyegegwa and Kyenjojo and has established a SPOC in Chaka to bring services closer to refugees and host communities around Kyaka.In Lango, it has established an Alebtong SPOC, while in Kassanda, where it has no branch, the bank uses a SPOC linked to its Mityana branch. Similar community service points are being used in Teso and Bugisu.Nakato said distance itself can prevent women from accessing financial services, particularly those operating small enterprises in rural communities.The bank is therefore using the Portfolio Expansion Grant (PEG) under GROW to finance outreach activities, including motorcycles for loan officers working in hard-to-reach locations.The officers travel into communities to sensitise women, assess businesses and process applications, with the costs covered by the programme rather than passed on to borrowers.“This is the money we use. There is no money incurred by our customers,” Nakato said, referring to the outreach and assessment activities supported by the grant.The SPOCs are also intended to provide a continuing local presence, with officers living and working within communities, understanding local business conditions and helping women with financial literacy, budgeting, saving, record keeping and loan applications.The programme’s impact, Nakato said, goes beyond lending.Women are being trained on how to manage money, keep business records, prepare budgets and measure business performance. The bank also works with local leaders, including LC officials, RDCs, district commercial officers and community development officers, to identify and sensitise potential beneficiaries.Opportunity Bank says this community-based approach has helped challenge perceptions that GROW financing is only accessible to wealthy or established entrepreneurs.Women operating small businesses with working capital of about Shs1 million or Shs2 million, including farmers and market traders, are among those being targeted.The bank is now preparing for additional GROW funding after what Nakato described as strong performance under its current allocation. She said Opportunity Bank has been identified among institutions qualifying for additional financing following assessment of its utilisation of the funds and Portfolio Expansion Grant.For Nakato, the emerging lesson is that lack of collateral should not automatically prevent women from accessing productive finance.She said the programme has demonstrated that women can borrow, invest in their enterprises and repay, allowing the financing to revolve to other entrepreneurs.GROW, implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, is intended to help women entrepreneurs move their businesses from micro to small and medium enterprises.Opportunity Bank’s experience suggests that achieving that objective depends not only on the availability of credit, but also on taking financial services to women who are geographically distant from branches and removing some of the conventional barriers that have kept them outside formal finance.For thousands of women in underserved communities, the combination of unsecured lending, community outreach and business training could therefore determine whether a business remains at subsistence level or gets the opportunity to grow.