Social intermediation and financial services access in Uganda's microfinance industry

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which social intermediation influences access to financial services in Uganda's microfinance industry.|Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts analysis of moment structures (AMOS), a form of structural equation modeling (SEM) to test hypotheses.|Findings – It was established that social intermediation together with antecedents of social capital and managerial competence, account for 32 percent of the variance in access to financial services in the microfinance industry.|Research limitations/implications – Only a single research methodological approach was employed and future research through interviews could be undertaken to triangulate. Furthermore, the findings from the present study are cross-sectional, future research should be undertaken to examine the social intermediation and its effects on access to financial services across time.|Practical implications – In order to boost the wealth of the active poor...