Nurturing The Culture of Saving: The Mshwari Way

According to Keynesian Economics, saving consist of the amount left over when the cost of a person’s consumer expenditure is subtracted from the amount of disposable income he earns in a given period of time.

According to a World Bank report, in a news article published on Standard Digital, the savings in the Kenyan households are not only low and declining, but are also lagging behind other economies in the region, which are less economically endowed than Kenya. The report says that in the 1980s, the saving rate in the country was higher than in Senegal, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania but Kenya has stagnated in the last three decades.

What is more positive is that in the last ten years, according to a report by The 2016 FinAccess household survey, the number of Kenyans formerly included by the financial system has grown by 50 percent. According to the report, over three-quarters, 75.3 percent of Kenyans are now formerly included, up from 66.8 percent in 2013.

The coming of the mobile money transfer in Kenya has greatly helped in the driving of financial inclusion in Kenya. Most Kenyans now use mobile phones to transact as compared to the past before the advance in technology. Currently, most Kenyans need not to go to the banks as all the transactions, from saving, banking, bank statements, withdrawing and all other inquiries are done via phone, thanks to the new technology.

What is the rate of saving in the country at the moment? Have Kenyans embraced the saving culture? What are some of the key drivers of the saving culture in the country?

READ: The Three Commandments of Saving Money

Creating and maintaining a saving culture is a very hard thing to many people. Many people are of the notion that for one to save, one must be an employee and earning some good money. The truth is that whether you are employed, self-employed or still in search of employment, you can still save and become rich.

READ: Developing a Saving Culture

Kenya has often been identified as a society with a weak saving culture. Most Kenyans do not have a saving culture and the majority of them live everyday as it comes. After working hard and gaining some profits, how much do you actually put away for a rainy day?

For the last few weeks, people have been attacking Mshwari but when I asked some of them to tell me why they were protesting, they could not give me a credible answer. I do not write to endorse products but a  defender of the truth, giving credit where it is due and criticizing where it is necessary and for those hurling words at Mshwari do not necessarily know about saving and how the culture has been made strong by Mshwari.

READ: Telling The Mshwari Story

Ask people who use Mshwari to save and they will tell you how convenience the platform is. With Mshwari, one is able to save as little as one shillings. Can you imagine, saving as little as one shilling and that same shilling earns you an interest of 7.35 percent per annum. Mshwari, is not just a place to store your money and it remains stagnant, here, your money grows with time.

Mshwari is for everyone, from the rich to the poor, from the young to the old, for one to save and grow. The saving culture is being developed and enhanced through Mshwari. One of the best feature of this platform is that the more you save, the more you increase your chances of getting a loan as well as the amount you are eligible to take as loan.