Uganda has an estimated 578,000 emigrants living abroad, according to 2024 International Migration Portal data. Many of the more than half a million Ugandans who made the decision to leave home decide each year to send a portion of their earnings back to the loved ones they left. Through sending remittances to Uganda, the country’s diaspora remains pivotal to economic growth and poverty reduction in Uganda.

What are Remittances?

Remittances are a cross-border transfer of money, most often from a foreign worker to family and friends in their home country. Migration and the increased accessibility of transfer channels in the digital age have driven remittance transfers to a position of global economic importance, accounting for approximately $857 billion in 2024, according to the World Bank. Remittances help households cover essential costs as well as invest in human capital through education and healthcare, which in turn bolsters economic growth. Additionally, the inflow of remittances through personal transactions allows for the benefits to be felt immediately, rather than delayed through the bureaucratic red tape that official foreign aid is subject to.

Poverty and Emigration from Uganda

In Uganda, 59.78% of the population were living on less than $3 a day in 2019, according to data from the World Bank. While the World Bank’s 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief claims that the national poverty rate has declined since 2019, poverty remains a central issue for Ugandans. Rural poverty is particularly prevalent in Uganda, with the International Labor Organization (ILO) recording 36% of working age Ugandans as subsistence farmers in 2023/24, and even more working climate vulnerable jobs in 2025. Rural Ugandans are vulnerable to shocks and face a lack of economic mobility through which they could reach greater stability. Better employment opportunities and compensation abroad, largely in the care economy, is the driving factor in emigration from Uganda, which adds to a growing diaspora population.

The Role of Remittances to Uganda

Remittances to Uganda are a longstanding feature of the country’s economy, peaking as a percentage of the national GDP at 7.2 in 2002, before returning to the relatively consistent range of 2-4% for the past decade according to World Bank data. In 2008, the World Bank Blog credited remittances with reducing the percentage of Uganda’s population below the national poverty line by 11 percentage points.

A 2026 Research paper published in the Journal of Development, Education & Technology found that remittances have a “positive and significant” impact on economic growth in Uganda, stating that a “1% increase in remittances to Uganda raises real GDP per capita by approximately 0.03% in the short run and 0.36% in the long run. Economic growth as a means of reducing poverty remains a priority in Uganda’s domestic policy.

Looking to the Future

In April, the Bank of Uganda and the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) collaborated on an International Remittance Dashboard, which comprehensively tracks data on the flow of remittances into and out of Uganda. The dashboard increases the accessibility of remittance data, with the stated aim of supporting “regulators, policymakers, and private-sector actors.” With concentrated information on where and how remittances flow into Uganda, relevant actors can take a targeted approach to IFAD’s goals of promoting financial inclusion and strengthening rural economies, both of which combat poverty.

Uganda’s Remittance Dashboard has captured the role of technology in reshaping economic avenues, as more than ¾ of remittances to Uganda now take the form of digital transfers, as opposed to cash. The growing accessibility of market information and secure digital channels, paired with the potential for better-informed policymaking, have the power to strengthen the channels of remittances to Uganda, so that more people are reached with essential financial support.

– Maya Thoni

Maya is based in Seattle, WA, USA and focuses on Technology and Solutions for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr