The Gender Impact of Microfinance: The Case of Wekembe in Uganda

Microfinance industry has grown massively in the past decades. Even if it is commonly considered as an importantdevelopment tool, the evidence of the socio-economic impact of microfinance is mixed, regardless of what methodology hasbeen applied. The purpose of this study is to assess the socio-economic impact of microfinance on the clients of amicrofinance program in Uganda, named Wekembe. To do so, we have conducted a survey on 294 Wekembe’s clients andwe have used the survey results to build a dataset, which by means of different methodologies – controlling also for selectionbias by means of a generalized propensity score (GPS) matching technique - allows us to analyse the impact ofmicrofinance on Wekembe clients’ savings and women clients’ empowerment.