Microfin Consult, a microfinance-centered consultancy firm, has organised a week-long capacity building workshop for representatives of various savings groups across West Africa.

The training was the first of two sessions to be held for different batches as part of the Sustainable Microfinance for Development Programme, with participants drawn from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The workshop was facilitated by Hugh Allen, who is the Chief Executive Officer of VSL Associates, who took participants through various models and methodologies for operating savings groups in a more sustainable and convenient way.

Chief Executive Officer of Microfin Consult, Ishmael Kwesi Otchere, said the training programme sought to upgrade the capacity of people in the savings group bracket to enable them serve the interest of their members.

According to him, it was time governments across the West African sub-region paid more attention to such category of informal financial actors to be able to achieve the real impact of microfinance.

Mr. Otchere noted: “Various savings groups across Africa are taking part in this training program and we are hoping that with this training, we will be able to build their capacity to expand savings group initiatives and get them included in the various financial inclusion strategies of their respective countries.”

According to him, the mode of operation of savings groups is an aspect of microfinance that is catching up all over the world, especially in the developing countries.

He said: “In various countries across the world, these savings groups are not given the needed recognition but these are groups that are mobilise their own savings and lend to its members; this is an aspect of microfinance that is catching up all over the world particularly the developing countries.

Savings groups, otherwise known as Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) are usually a group of 10-25 people who save together and the group members are able to take small loans from those savings in a cyclical manner.

In Ghana, there are a total of 487,002 members from 18,591 different groups with an annualised savings of up to US$35,654,585; an outstanding loans value worth US­$8,591,658 with a 16.21 percent returns on savings.

Across the West African sub-region, savings groups boast 2,406,324 in membership from about 99,849 groups. They control an annualised savings value of US$162,720,923, an outstanding loans value worth US$29,327,126 with returns on savings hovering around 13.68 percent.

Globally, there are about 17million people who are actually patronizing savings groups; in Africa, the figure is around 12million.

“These are statistics from the few savings groups who prepare official reports and it will be surprising to know that this informal savings groups mobilise almost about US$162million annually,” Mr. Otchere stressed.