Researcher
Dr. Ester Agasha is the CEO of SENLA Research Hub in Uganda, where she leads impactful research initiatives, fosters stakeholder engagement, and advocates for evidence-based policymaking. In this leadership role, she oversees a portfolio of projects aimed at economic empowerment and sustainable development. With extensive experience in development economics, Dr. Agasha has led and collaborated on multiple randomized controlled trials (RCTs). She serves as a Research Consultant at Johns Hopkins University on an RCT examining self-empowerment among microentrepreneurs, and as Co-Principal Investigator with FINCA International on a study evaluating non-collateralized loans for women entrepreneurs.
In 2023, Dr. Agasha led a University of San Francisco-funded RCT on financial literacy and aspirations in Eastern Uganda. She earned her Ph.D. in Management from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, where her research focused on loan portfolio quality in microfinance. Dr. Agasha also holds an MSc in International and Development Economics from the University of San Francisco, in addition to an MSc in Banking and Investment and a BBA in Finance from Makerere University. Previously, she was a lecturer at Makerere University Business School and served as Acting Academic Registrar at Victoria University. Her contributions have been recognized with a 2022 CEGA Non-Resident Fellow Research Grant and a prestigious DAAD Ph.D. scholarship. Dr. Agasha is a member of NIERA, the East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) network, and the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM). She recently secured a $200,000 GDI Solutions subaward to lead a gamified financial literacy RCT across Uganda, underscoring her commitment to innovative financial inclusion solutions.
