Africa’s 43 million Displaced Persons and Refugees Generate over USD 27 Billion every Year
Uganda demonstrates that the constraint on displaced people's economic participation is not capacity or willingness, it is access. Where land, credit, and market linkages have been unlocked, commercial viability has followed.
Black News 
There are 43 million Displaced People in Africa.
Together they generate over US$27 Billion a Year.
That’s how much?
Amahoro Coalition has released a research report called the ‘Hiding in Plain Sight, Africa’s US$27 billion Displacement Market Opportunity.’
The report documents the economic scale of displacement across Africa and the commercial case for private sector investment in displacement-affected communities.
According to the research, Africa’s displaced population of 43.1 million people, refugees and internally displaced persons combined, generates an estimated US$27 billion in annual income.
That is an economy the size of Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product of 2010s and Zambia’s current GDP.
Yet it operates almost entirely without the financial infrastructure that any comparably sized economy would take for granted: no banking sector, no formal retail chains, no structured access to credit.
“Africa’s displaced communities are not waiting for rescue. They are running businesses, farming land, and moving goods across borders, with almost none of the financial infrastructure available to everyone else. That gap is where the opportunity is,” says Tito Mbathi, Head of Partnerships, Amahoro Coalition.
The report maps investment potential across five sectors: entrepreneurship, agriculture, finance, supply chain, and manufacturing with primary data, market sizing, and case studies drawn from working models already generating commercial returns.
In partnership with Development Finance Company of Uganda (DFCU) Bank, one of the country’s leading financial institutions, Amahoro Coalition is working to translate the report’s findings into concrete financial products and pathways for displaced entrepreneurs across Uganda’s settlement corridors.
DFCU Bank’s 57-branch network and established agribusiness and SME portfolio make it uniquely positioned to reach the displacement economy this report documents.
“At DFCU, we believe financial inclusion must extend to every enterprising community with the ambition and ability to build sustainable livelihoods.”
“This report reinforces what we see across Uganda: displaced people are not only participants in the economy, but they are also entrepreneurs, farmers, customers, and partners in growth. Through our work with Amahoro Coalition, we are committed to supporting practical financial solutions that unlock access to credit, markets, and enterprise development for refugees and host communities alike,”
Maryann Wanjiku Michuki – Chief Business Solutions and Marketing Officer
Uganda: The Clearest Proof Point in Africa
Uganda hosts more refugees than any other country in Africa, over 1.7 million people, and its land-based self-reliance model has become the continent’s most cited example of what is possible when policy creates the conditions for economic participation.
● Over 91 percent of refugees in Uganda live in settlements with allocated farm plots.
● More than 86,000 refugees were trained in agriculture in 2023 alone.
● Over US$200 million has been invested in refugee-hosting districts since 2017, benefiting both displaced and host communities.
● The Omia Agribusiness Farmer Hub model has served over 49,000 farmers and channeled US$413,000 directly to refugee and host farmers, operating commercially in corridors previously considered too high-risk.
Uganda demonstrates that the constraint on displaced people’s economic participation is not capacity or willingness, it is access. Where land, credit, and market linkages have been unlocked, commercial viability has followed.
The Scale of the Invisible Nation
Kyangwali settlement is home to 83,558 refugees, more people than Uganda’s internationally known city of Entebbe.
Yet Kyangwali is rarely recognized as an economy in national statistics or investment strategies. Most of Africa’s displaced live, economically speaking, off the grid.
This invisibility is the product of documentation requirements, regulatory frameworks, and financial systems designed for settled populations, systems that exclude displaced people not because of any economic failure on their part, but because the systems were never designed to include them.
The report argues that these design failures are, for first-mover investors, the opportunity.
Key Findings
● US$27 billion: estimated total annual income of Africa’s displaced populations (IDPs: US$22.1bn; refugees: US$5.6bn).
● 56 percent labor force participation rate among displaced populations in comparison to many African national averages.
● 12 percent entrepreneurship rate among displaced populations, ahead of many host community averages.
● 3.4 million displaced-led MSMEs estimated across the continent.
● Over 95 percent loan repayment rates at refugee-focused lenders, often outperforming host community microfinance benchmarks.
● US$3.2 billion formal financial services opportunity if displaced populations achieved continental access parity.
● US$2.4 billion agricultural opportunity if adequate land access were provided.
● Around 88 percent of African countries still lack formal land access frameworks for displaced populations.
About the Report
The Hiding in Plain Sight, Africa’s US$27B Displacement Market Opportunity report was produced by Amahoro Coalition and draws on primary survey data covering 36–37 percent of Africa’s displaced population, validated against secondary sources including UNHCR, the World Bank, Oxford University, and the International Labour Organization.
The report’s methodology applies conservative lower-bound estimates in line with impact investment market-sizing standards.
The Amahoro Coalition was established in 2019, Amahoro Coalition is the leading convener of African private sector leaders for social impact and works with displaced communities and the private sector to co-create economic opportunities: connecting capital, expertise, and entrepreneurship across Africa’s displacement contexts.
Amahoro Coalition operates offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Accra, Ghana, with team members in more than a dozen countries.
