Bean Marketing in Uganda - Uganda Strategy Support Program Notes

ecause they sell on credit to regular customers like large-scale farmers, wholesalers and
some retailers. The high proportion of input traders giving customers credit is a good
indication since NGO’s, banks and government programs may use them to extend credit
to farmers. This is what the IDEA project and other organizations are attempting to do in
Uganda.
Lending money for unspecified purposes appears to be rare as compared to input credits
reported in Table 16 and 17. Only a few input traders offered monetary loans to people.
No importer offered any monetary loan while only 29% of wholesalers and 25% of
retailers offered monetary loans.
On a regional basis, the northern and western regions traders appear to offer more
monetary loans than traders in the central and eastern regions. The north and west are the
most remote regions, where it appears the social capital between traders and their
customers is strongest. The percent of input traders who lent money were about 17% in
the central region, 13% in the eastern region, 44% in the north region and 54% in the
western region. Informal money lending needs a high degree of trust and this may be
attainable mainly among resource-poor farmers and entrepreneurs. Results of this
research support this observation.
The rate of default on monetary loans was 10% in the central region, 0% in the eastern
region, 16% in the northern region and 38% in the western region. The defaulting rate is
highest in the west and lowest in the east. There was no apparent reason for the high
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