Main Article Content
Abstract
Rationalizing the COVID-19 international public health crisis, this paper assesses the effect of COVID-19 pandemic
on access to credit from financial institutions in Uganda. The lockdown affected access to credit from financial
institutions by all regions, sectors, yet businesses plays a remarkable role towards the economic growth and
development of the economy. The study used a cross-sectional descriptive design and results revealed that there was
no significant difference between the average proportional of access to credit and the average proportional of no
access to credit in different regions as indicated by a p-value (0.0624), no significant mean difference between the
proportional of large enterprises and SMEs that had access to credit and the proportional of large enterprises and
SMEs that had no access to credit during the COVID-19 at 5% level (P-value=0.5542, Mean difference=9.75%) and
no significant difference between the proportional of sectors that had access to credit and the proportional of sectors
that had no access to credit during the COVID-19 period in Uganda at 5% level (P-value=0.2794, mean
difference=6.5%). The study recommended that there is need to extend financial support to eastern region,
manufacturing and services sector and BoU to encourage financial institutions to extend more credit to small,
medium, and micro enterprises.