The TMBA, a financial association located in the Nakivale refugee settlement, was formed in 2016 by 9 members who are all refugees. It started as a ROSCA group, whereby all 9 members would contribute 2,000 UGX per week, plus a starting contribution of 10,000 UGX. ROSCA [1] stands for Rotating Savings and Credit Association. It is sometimes […]
Goodbye, Abed Bhai
The pensive, thoughtful man of few words In this blog, I am specifically writing for my staff, all the field workers, and even respondents. I realize that as the Managing Director of L-IFT my role is to provide you with the inspiration and world look that Mr. Abed provided me as a young staffer at […]
One of L-IFT’s Field Researchers in Nakivale Refugee Settlement: Mibaraka Kamana
Mibaraka, 34 years old, is one of our many dedicated and hard-working researchers. He fled from his home in Congo in 2013, because of tensions and rebel activity in the area where he lived. Rebels would kidnap people, take them to the bush and kill them. Before fleeing, Mibaraka had a good life in his home country. He […]
One of L-IFT’s Field Researchers in Nakivale Refugee Settlement: Kamikazi Nelly
In 2015, Kamikazi Nelly, a 34-year-old Burundian businesswoman, had to leave everything behind to come to Nakivale. The Burundian government had burned her very successful clothing business, and the Burundian police were known to kill and torture citizens. She fled to a different part of Burundi first with her mother, her sister, and her younger […]
Refugee Finance Project in Uganda: Frehiwot’s Nakivale Refugee Settlement Experience
When I first got notified that a colleague and I were going to be assigned to be part of a Refugee Finance Project, I have to admit, I was a bit nervous. I was not sure what to expect, the uncertainty made me uncomfortable. Our manager enlightened us about the project, gave us detailed materials […]
Faith Oriaze; A Data Volunteer’s Experience
It all began when I was selected to be part of ‘youth saving diaries’ project that was conducted by L-IFT from November 2019 to February 2019 in Nigeria. One of the researchers visited me weekly to ask me questions about my finance and other things. I also got a visit from the Managing Director, Anne […]
My First 5 Years With L-IFT
Recently, I received congratulatory messages on LinkedIn for my 5th year anniversary working with L-IFT. This made me realize how time just flies when you are enjoying what you do and have wonderful colleagues. I joined L-IFT when it was working on the YouthStart diaries project in Ethiopia and Togo by analyzing the data and writing […]
A Gentleman in Iganga
The story of Joshua, now one of our supervisors, represents the success that L-IFT has had in improving the lives of many of our respondents and researchers alike. Through working with and for L-IFT, Joshua has managed to grow financially, professionally, and personally. In 2016, Joshua was one of our respondents for a Mastercard Foundation-funded […]
In what type of households do young people live: Household size and household composition of participants in Youth Saving Diaries Study (Nigeria, Morocco, and Senegal)
Often when we study young people’s financial behavior, we may not take into account the family composition that potentially could influence their financial behavior and decisions. L-IFT conducted a diaries study on ‘young people’s saving’ focusing on young people aged 15 to 30 in Nigeria, Senegal, and Morocco. One of the assumptions was young people […]
“Signal signal, where are you?”
Our very first researcher team in Kayin Myanmar, where we are piloting the use of our L-IFT App, the Finbit, together with the Cordaid team. The researchers interview members of saving groups about their income and expenditures every other week. The data supports individual respondents to develop their financial history, while the aggregated data inform […]