Changing our mindset for a strong savings culture

The drive to promote a savings culture among Rwandans has been launched with the branding of this week as the ‘Savings Week’. One factor that has been observed over the years is that populations lack capacity to save owing to the fact that most of them do not have any disposable income. Now, how does this change? Governments can only put in place a conducive environment for poverty reduction and people -friendly policies. It should instead be the population’s responsibility to get used to saving, however small the amounts from their earnings. It is equally important to have capacity building programmes, to sensitise the population that consuming today is not more important than planning for the future. Like the Finance Minister, recently put it, it is important to develop capacity to redesign and propose appropriate, effective and innovative savings products. This must find the population with a clear understanding that it doesn’t require one to earn millions or even thousands of francs to start saving. True, there has been a gap in terms of a savings mobilization policy, with sectors like pension scheme, insurance, housing and leasing, moving rather slowly. It is important to forget the past and build on new strategies the government is putting in place. A strong savings culture comes in as a major boost to Rwanda’s eight pillars in the EDPRS. This well envisaged vision can only be realized if the population learns to save for the future as there can never be investment without savings. This will also help in fostering local investments rather than waiting for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that depends on savings made by people elsewhere. Ends

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Changing our mindset for a strong savings culture