Closing the Financing Gap for SMEs in Displacement-Affected Communities: Lessons Learned from Financing the Blind Spots

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Dear IFB Family,

Across East Africa, millions of people living in displacement-affected communities are running businesses, creating jobs, and building economic futures, often without access to formal financing. The barriers are often weak or limited financial records, alongside perceived migration risk. The question is not whether capital exists — but whether it is structured to work in these contexts.

This session brings together practitioner and entrepreneur perspectives to explore one approach to closing the financing gap for SMEs in displacement-affected communities.

Drawing on Relevant’s work managing the DAC Purpose Pool in partnership with the IKEA Foundation and SINA, the session will share lessons from designing and deploying a revolving capital facility across displacement-affected communities in Uganda.

Jerome Kwilyame, co-founder of Watoto are Tomorrow, opens the session from the entrepreneur’s perspective, sharing what it took to access financing, how it shaped his business, and what comes next.  Edson Niwamanya, co-founder of Relevant, will then share the practitioner's perspective: why conventional capital fails in these contexts, how the DAC Purpose Pool was designed to fill that gap, and the role philanthropic capital played in making the model work, and lessons from the journey — including what Relevant is doing differently.  The session is designed for organisations working at the intersection of humanitarian response, enterprise development, and impact finance.

Speakers:
Jerome Kwilyame, Co-founder, Watoto are Tomorrow
Edson Niwamanya, Co-founder and Programmes Lead, Relevant
Moderator: Maike Striffler, Co-founder, Relevant

Date : June 24th
Time: 9:00-10:30 am EST
Duration: 90 minutes (60 minutes structured discussion + 30 minutes Q&A)
Core themes: SME Financing, investment readiness, displacement-affected communities,  and philanthropic capital

Key Takeaways

• Entrepreneurs in displacement-affected communities are creditworthy — the constraint is how financing is designed.

• Philanthropic capital can absorb early risk and bridge access to finance in these blind spots.

• Investment readiness is as much a supply-side challenge as a demand-side one. The gap is not only lenders' willingness to lend, but entrepreneurs' preparedness to borrow.

• The transition to sustainable SME financing requires active intent. It will not happen without designing for it from the start.

Who Should Attend

• Foundations and philanthropic funders active in East Africa or fragile and conflict-affected settings

• Impact investors and development finance institutions exploring first-loss or blended structures

• NGO and INGO programme leads working on livelihoods, economic inclusion, or enterprise development

• Practitioners in refugee response and displacement-affected community programming

• Policy and advocacy professionals working on access to finance or the humanitarian-development intersection

We look forward to seeing you there!  SIGN UP HERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/12qYLGXjQ4-wjEe8O-i84A