Re: [MFP] Savings Groups: What are they and how could they link to banks? A workshop

This is indeed a funny and "inspiring" choice of location. Let us hope that the flow of one kind of liquidity (beer) will stimulate solutions for the other kind of liquidity (savings).

Mingyee

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From: Hugh Allen <hugh@vsla.net>
To: MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 10:58 AM
Subject: RE: [MFP] Savings Groups: What are they and how could they link to banks? A workshop

 

Not me.  SaveAct.  I'm there for a day to enjoy the canapés.

 

From: MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Waterfield
Sent: 25 June 2013 17:38
To: MicrofinancePractice@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [MFP] Savings Groups: What are they and how could they link to banks? A workshop

 

 

You're having a "brainstorming of ideas for meeting the excess liquidity challenge " and you're holding this event at the World of Beer?

 

 

On Jun 25, 2013, at 11:05 AM, anton.krone <anton@saveact.org.za> wrote:

 

 

FINANCIAL INCLUSION LEARNING AND SHARING PLATFORM

Savings Groups: What are they and how could they link to banks?

FinMark Trust, the Centre for Inclusive Banking in Africa (CIBA) (University of Pretoria) and SaveAct are pleased to invite you to a learning-and-sharing-platform about the Savings Revolution that is sweeping through Africa, and to contribute your knowledge to technical solutions that could enable effective linkages to banks.Please join us to learn about the Savings Group phenomenon and to share ideas on how to create links between this phenomenon and the formal banking system. 

Date:15^th July 2013
Time:10h00 – 15h30
Place:SAB World of Beer, Newtown, Johannesburg
 
To secure yourplace at the workshop please contact Precious by email: preciousm@finmark.org.za. For queries, call+27 11 315 9197.
 
Directions tothe venue may be found on http://www.worldofbeer.co.za/content/page/contactParking isavailable at the venue.

There are almost 7 million members of Savings Groups in Africa; these groups bring far-reaching benefits for the poor. SaveAct has been spearheading the development of these groups in South Africa. The South African groups are amongst the highest savers in such groups in the world. Demand for participation is extraordinarily high: 20 000 rural women and some men have joined SaveAct's programme, mobilising about R60m on an annualised basis.

Hugh Allen,VSL & Associates, is one of the key architects of this global movement. Hugh is a microfinance specialist who has played a leading role in promoting this model around the world. He has published widely on the subject and teaches practitioners to apply the methodology. One of the challenges that South African Savings Groups face is cyclical excess liquidity. Members invest their social grants and remittances with their Savings Groups and, for a period in the annual cycle, experience a significant cash surplus. Michael Kaddu, Head of Corporate Services of Barclays Bank, Uganda, has been coordinating efforts to enable effective linkages by Savings Groups to banks. He will speak on this experience in Uganda, where some 700 000 people are members of such groups.

Draft Programme
10h00 –15h30

1. The Savings Revolution in South Africa Personal observations and Absa's partnership with SaveAct. (Jan Lubbe, Absa) 
2. What are Savings Groups? How Savings Groups empower rural women and enable financial literacy, agency, consumption smoothing, scale and sustainability. (Hugh Allen, VSL & Associates)
3. Why are Savings Groups important to the banking and financial services sector? How Barclays has interfaced with this movement. Savings Groups as a springboard towards financial inclusion and financial capability, steps to manage excess liquidity. (Michael Kaddu, Barclays Uganda)
4. Opportunities for achieving a more financially literate and capable population, areas that need follow-up and the importance of embedding financial education in financial services (Kim Dancey, FinMark Trust)

Afternoon session open to all. A working session and brainstorming of ideas for meeting the excess liquidity challenge of Savings Groups in South Africa.

5. Defining the relationship between Savings Groups and formal financial services: The South African Challenge and Lessons from Case Studies in Africa. Speaking to the conceptual challenge. (Marcel Jakubec, Genesis-Analytics)

6. 1 hour group discussion facilitated by (Anton Krone, SaveAct and Kim Dancey, FinMark Trust)

7. Summing up: conclusions by (Gerhard Coetzee, CIBA).