Uganda Youth Financial Literacy Network
Youth programmes and banks look for organised, documented groups, not individuals. The Youth Network builds them, one chapter at a time.
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Source: UBOS, National Population and Housing Census 2024
Why we organise
Alone
1 young personsaving, learning and applying aloneInvisible to banks and programmes
Together
100 membersin one chapter, meeting, saving and keeping records togetherVisible to banks, youth programmes and partners
Youth programmes back groups: the Youth Livelihood Programme supports Youth Interest Groups of 10–15 members, not individuals. Source: Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, YLP
The challenge
Uganda already invests in its youth, through the Youth Livelihood Programme, Emyooga, the Parish Development Model and the youth products of commercial banks. Yet young people often reach these doors:
Our answer
Our mission: to empower Ugandan youth through practical financial literacy education, structured peer learning and organised group development, as savers, entrepreneurs and informed citizens.
Form or join a chapter at your university or in your community, register it with The Youth Network and receive a verified Member ID.
Practical money skills across three levels: Foundation, Wealth Intelligence and Digital Entrepreneur.
Members work as a chapter: they meet regularly, save in the chapter’s own bank account and decide together how to use their savings.
Organised, well-documented youth become visible to youth programmes, banks and partners, with support to apply for opportunities open only to groups.
Members grow their enterprises and keep learning, with follow-up that tracks real outcomes.
Who we serve
University, tertiary and TVET students, organised through university chapters, building money habits before they graduate.
Working, self-employed, vocational and unemployed youth, organised through community chapters by district.
We aim for at least 50% female participation in every cohort.
What we measure
These are our Year 1 → Year 2 targets, not results yet. We publish an Outcome & Learning Report every year.
Leadership
Founder
Atukwase Emmanuel founded The Youth Network in December 2025 to organise young Ugandans into chapters that learn money skills, save together and become visible to the youth programmes, banks and partners that support organised groups.
Our co-founders will be introduced here soon.
Partner with us
We work alongside the programmes and institutions that already serve young people. We prepare the youth; you reach them ready.
YLP · Emyooga · Parish Development Model
Youth accounts · group lending
Programmes · grants · technical support
Student chapters
Tell us about your organisation and we’ll share our concept note.
Partners & supporters
Partner logos appear here once agreements are signed.
How we stay accountable
Our members are already in Kampala, Mbarara, Bushenyi, Kabale and beyond, and we’re growing into campuses and communities in every region.
Something not covered here? Message the team on WhatsApp.
Youth is an advantage, only if utilised.
The Youth Network provides financial education, structure and support to apply. It does not hold deposits or chapter funds, decide how chapters use their savings, or guarantee loans, grants, returns or access to any external programme.
About us
The Youth Network (Uganda Youth Financial Literacy Network) organises young Ugandans into chapters at their universities and in their communities. We teach practical money skills, and we connect well-organised, well-documented chapters to mentors, banks, youth programmes and partners.
Scroll the storyBy The Youth Network, Uganda Youth Financial Literacy Network · October 2026
01 · Where we started
We started as a small youth group. We were financially excluded, unorganised and undocumented, with no mentors and little financial discipline. Banks could not trust us. Government youth programmes were just as closed.
We sat down and asked a hard question: why are we being rejected, and what would it take to be accepted?
It was not only us. Thousands of youth groups across Uganda are exactly like ours: full of energy and ideas, and invisible to the institutions that could help them.
The opportunities were already there, waiting for groups with every box ticked. So we decided to become that group, and to help every other group become one too. Our founding cohort started in December 2025, led by our Founder, Atukwase Emmanuel. Today we have members from Kampala to Mbarara, Bushenyi and Kabale.
What banks and youth programmes look for
Youth is an advantage, only if utilised.
02 · The numbers
1 of every 8 finds a formal job. The other 7 find their own way.
The 2024 national census found that about three in every four Ugandans are aged 30 and below. Young people are the country’s greatest asset.
But the jobs have not kept up. About 700,000 young Ugandans reach working age every year, and estimates put the number of new graduates at a similar figure. Only about 90,000 find formal jobs: roughly one in eight (12.9%), which leaves about 87% outside the formal job market every year. A Mastercard Foundation study reached almost the same figure, 12.86% of graduates. Counting every kind of work, the World Bank estimates the economy finds work for just over 200,000 new entrants a year, about one in three.
03 · Where the money goes
When money is scarce, every shilling matters. Yet much of what young people do earn leaks away on things that are gone by Monday:
Add the everyday leaks: data and airtime beyond what we need, takeaways, outings, and clothes bought to keep up. None of it is wrong on its own. Together, it is the difference between spending and owning.
The question is not how much you earn. It is whether your money buys things that lose value, or things that can grow in value or earn. Tap a card to flip it.
Examples to learn from, not financial advice. The value of any asset can fall as well as rise.
04 · Why groups win
Faced with few jobs, many young Ugandans do what makes sense: they start something. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research has found that about one in ten Ugandan adults starts a business each year. Most of these businesses are started out of necessity rather than opportunity. They are small, informal and run day to day, set up to put food on the table this week rather than to grow, hire and last.
Many close. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research found that about one in five Ugandan adults has already closed a business. Business-sector estimates quoted in 2026 put first-year failure as high as two in three new businesses, and up to 80% within three years. Whatever the exact figure, the pattern is clear: too many young people pour their savings and energy into ventures that were never set up to survive.
The reasons are familiar. No records. No separation between business money and household money. No savings buffer. No mentor. And, crucially, no group to lean on, because a single young trader with a small kiosk is invisible to the banks and programmes that could help them grow.
Uganda does not lack support for young people. The Youth Livelihood Programme was built around Youth Interest Groups of 10 to 15 members. Emyooga channels support through SACCOs and associations with millions of registered members. The Parish Development Model works through parish SACCOs. Banks offer youth and group products.
In almost every case, the door opens for organised, documented groups, not individuals. Where groups were formed in a hurry, without training, discipline or records, results have suffered: the Youth Livelihood Programme, for example, had recovered only about half of what was due by 2021. Forming a group is only the first step. The group has to be ready.
05 · Our answer
Young people do not need to be convinced to work hard. They need leverage. We help members use five kinds:
Starting young means every good habit, from saving to learning a skill, has decades to grow.
One young person is invisible. Hundreds, organised in chapters, are impossible to ignore.
Government youth programmes and banks already exist for groups that are ready. We help chapters get ready.
Bank managers, business people and professionals who share what school never taught.
Jobs, partners and opportunities that come through a network, not through a CV alone.
Young people form chapters at their universities and in their communities. The chapter meets, works and decides together.
Practical money skills, step by step: budgeting, saving, credit, record-keeping and enterprise.
Every chapter saves in its own bank account and keeps the records banks and programmes ask for. We never hold members’ money.
Ready chapters are linked to mentors, banks, youth programmes and partners, with help to apply.
Members move from spending to owning: savings, skills and assets that can grow.
To make young Ugandans financially literate, organised and application-ready, so that knowledge becomes disciplined action and greater economic participation.
A generation of youth with the confidence, records and support networks to make informed financial decisions, own assets and build sustainable livelihoods.
To government programmes, banks, development partners, universities and employers: Uganda’s young people are ready to work. They need to be organised, equipped and made visible. We would like to do that work with you.
To young Ugandans: you are not too small to be seen. Together, you are not small at all.
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