Growing consumption affecting sub-Sahara savings

Growing consumption in Sub- Saharan Africa driven by the growing economies may be having an opposite effect on the level of national savings that have remained the same in the recent past, affecting the ability of the region to mobilise cheap capital for social development. Inability to increase national savings is seen partly as a consequence to the dramatic change in economic fortunes of African countries resulting from the high demand of commodities especially by China that has outpaced early opportunity for policy changes to mobilise more savings among wealthy Africans to save more.Although savings culture differs from one African country to the other, there is a general acknowledgement that there is less use of the informal savings products like the savings accounts in the commercial banks.“From our interactions with banks in several African countries, they told us that 75 percent of salary accounts are withdrawn within ten days of their being credited and this definitely affects the pace of savings,” said Tim Smyth, Group CEO, TBWA East Africa, a branding and advertising consulting company in an interview on Wednesday in Nairobi. Data from the World Bank indicates that national savings level in Africa, excluding North Africa has remained dismally low. While a country like Algeria that is in the North Africa bloc has one of the highest savings culture, saving 53.4 percent of its national wealth created every year, Angola has national savings average of 8 percent, South Africa 19.9 percent, Kenya 14.7 percent and Guinea negative 2.2 percent. “But there is a rider to this,” said Rick de Kock, the Director of Africa Operations at TBWA in an interview. “A lot of savings may be happening in the informal sector like the savings cooperatives societies where there is more perception of social security than in the banks. There is much more competition between consumption petition and savings the two”.The structure of the informal savings groups like those in Kenya ensures that there is a continuous savings by members. First, a member has to be a saver to join the group. Every member has also to increase their savings in order to qualify for higher credit. The most common rule is that a member is given credit that is three times the amount they have saved. Another requirement is that as one repays the loan advanced, a portion of that money must be paid at equal intervals to onto the savings account of the member. This may explain why in Kenya for instance, savings in the savings and credit cooperatives had recorded continuous growth in the last 30 years to stand at 2.7 billion U.S. dollars by 2011, according to Saccos Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA). Kenya Sacco is the largest in Africa and controls 67 percent of the total Sacco assets and 62 percent of the total Sacco deposits for the entire continent.What could be funded with savings is increasingly being funded with credit because it access is much easier than in the last ten years when the economic growth had not gained momentum. Sub-Saharan Africa economies have been the fastest growing in the world, averaging 5 percent and this has created a new class of wealthy. The challenge is that while the consumption levels have changed and are fuelling economic growth, the level of national savings remains the same for the last 10 years, at least according to official data.A report by consulting company Deloitte and Planet Retail released last year identified five African countries including Algeria, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa as being among the 10 new markets most likely to appeal to multinational store groups in the coming years. The report cited decision by the U. S. retail giant Wal-Mart to buy a majority stake in South Africa’s Massmart last year as the clearest indication that the growth of retail business in the continent had grabbed international attention. Massmart has presence in 13 other African markets meaning that the U.S. retailer will also get a foothold in these markets.