Kampala, 17 October 2025 – The UGEFA Green Finance Dialogue Forum (GFDF25) convened over 110 stakeholders from finance, government, enterprise, and development partners at the Mestil Hotel in Kampala to chart the next chapter for green SME finance in Uganda. Under the theme “From Risk to Opportunity: Mainstreaming Green Finance for SMEs,” participants explored how to move green finance from a niche to the new normal in Uganda’s financial sector.
Envisioning the next phase for green SME finance
Opening the forum, Christine Meyer, UGEFA Programme Lead at adelphi, reflected on UGEFA’s evolution and its role in Uganda’s finance ecosystem: “Over the past years, UGEFA has witnessed and contributed to a remarkable evolution in Uganda: It’s no longer a niche activity, but embedded in the operations of Uganda’s financial institutions.” Christine Meyer showcased achievements from UGEFA’s first phase, including 206 enterprises supported, 31.85 bn UGX in green debt finance facilitated, 13 banks trained, and 38% year-on-year revenue growth among portfolio enterprises.
Next, representing the European Union Delegation to Uganda, Michelle Walsh, Team Leader for Green Growth and Private Sector, highlighted how the market has shifted: “Green Finance has evolved from a niche or CSR activity to a market opportunity for financial institutions,” adding to UGEFA’s important work with “UGEFA works because it builds bridges… and contributes to creating a green finance ecosystem in Uganda”.
Setting the scene: From risk to opportunity
A high-level panel explored how climate-related risks can be transformed into investable opportunities, highlighting the growing importance of aligning finance with climate resilience.
Eng. Dr. Pablo Martinez of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) underscored the pivotal role of Uganda’s newly developed green taxonomy. “The recent green taxonomy of Uganda helps to identify green investments and distinguish them from riskier investments in the climate change context,” he explained. “It’s time to start mainstreaming green finance, adjusted to the needs of financial institutions and SMEs.”
Dr. Lena Giesbert of adelphi highlighted the significance of transition risks alongside physical climate threats. “In addition to physical risks of climate change, we see many transitional risks, especially for the financial sector,” she noted, pointing to the vulnerability of SME business models to climate variability.
Dr. Colin Agabalinda from ARCAFIM–IFAD called for greater ambition in the sector: “Physical risks such as crop loss or flooding affect smallholder farmers strongly, and directly translate to risks for the financial sector… Making green finance the new normal has to be the target.”
Concluding the discussion, Diana Nanono Ssengendo of dfcu Bank emphasized the importance of understanding climate change in depth. “Until we really understand climate change, we will keep going around it and its core issues,” she cautioned.
Green Enterprise Champions: Success factors for growth
In the next session, three UGEFA-supported enterprises pitched their businesses to the audience, sharing how they are turning climate challenges into investable opportunities and how UGEFA has guided them in the growth process.
Founder of Krystal Ice, Linnet Akol, shared the following on market positioning and credibility: “The money is never enough; when you start with something new, all the banks see is risk. UGEFA has exposed us to new partners and created credibility for our business.” Similarly, Harron Tusubira from Greencircle expressed his view on the UGEFA programme: “Our partnership with UGEFA was transformational, as it helped us to become formalised and therefore bankable. This led us to secure a major contract that marked a significant turning point to growth for the company.” Lastly, Tonny Eluk, founder of Bambou Planting Empowerment, highlighted the success his enterprise had collaborating with UGEFA: “Thanks to UGEFA, we were able to support more than 180 farms in the sustainable growing of bamboo.”
Opportunities – Interactive plenary
In the first afternoon session, participants focused on strategies to expand green finance both horizontally, across sectors and underserved SME segments, and vertically, through deeper integration into mainstream markets. Interactive table sprints encouraged participants to identify innovative approaches for broadening outreach and increasing the uptake of green financial products. The session concluded with a plenary “harvest,” where each group presented and prioritised key ideas. Insights and proposals were recorded on brown papers and shared in plenary to promote cross-group learning and discussion.
Practitioner Labs – From risk awareness to bankable pipelines
During the last session of the GFDF, the participants were separated into three action-oriented breakout sessions developed practical steps, tools, and collaboration models on the following three topics:
- Financial Inclusion through Gender-Responsive Design:
Selina Blum (adelphi) facilitated the co-creation of prototype solutions to advance women’s access to green finance in agriculture, energy, and waste
- Green Business & Investment Opportunities Along the Value Chain
Christine Meyer (adelphi) supported the mapping of investable green business cases across agriculture, construction, and waste, to showcase pipelines for financial institutions
- Unlocking Finance for Resource Efficiency & Cleaner Production (RECP)
The last group was moderated by Fred Opio (Enabel) and discussed the usage of real business cases and financial data to demonstrate bankability of RECP investments, aligned with lenders’ lifecycle, and designed to collaborate with technical partners to de-risk lending and deploy RECP-aligned loans.
Outlook
The session leads shared key insights and practical next steps, calling for coordinated action to expand tailored green finance solutions and deepen market adoption. The forum emphasised the importance of developing strong pipelines of bankable green SMEs, continued funding facilitation, and technical assistance for financial institutions. Building on these outcomes, UGEFA will continue to strengthen partnerships between banks and green enterprises, enhance the capacity of financial institutions to assess and finance green investments, and scale up its support to innovative SMEs driving Uganda’s green transition in the months ahead.
