On Tuesday, October 2023, Rwanda joined the global community in celebrating the World Savings Day, an event that is aimed at rallying the population around the culture of saving for the ‘rainy days’. To demonstrate the importance that Rwanda attaches to the promotion of the savings culture, different government departments embarked on a weeklong exercise to encourage the masses to embrace saving and financial prudence. ALSO READ: RSSB CBO on why you should save in pension, EjoHeza schemes Saving not only benefits individuals. It permeates to their families, communities where they live and subsequently the country. By doing the opposite, you run a risk of becoming a burden to families the community and the country in general. ALSO READ: World Savings Day: Why teaching children financial responsibility is essential The most pervasive misconception is that saving is a preserve for those who earn enough and can therefore spare a surplus to keep for the future, which is a grossly misguided attitude. Financial experts have held it that one can never have enough money, meaning that the more you get the more ideas to spend it will pop up. It is therefore impossible to think that after earning money, you will first take care of all your needs and keep what remains as saving. You will never have that surplus. What should be done instead is to appropriate savings as soon as you get an income and frugally operate within the remaining income. Saving means foregoing something today for a better tomorrow and this is can either be done on individual basis on may even take a communal shape and must not be the preserve of those earning a regular salary, especially people in formal employment. Fortunately, in Rwanda, many mechanisms have been put in place to ensure as many citizens save including through structured schemes like Ejo Heza, a long-term saving scheme that targets Rwandans of all walks of life, including those in the informal sector. ALSO READ: World Savings day: Rwanda seeks to save 23% of GDP for 2023/24 Even more informal facilities have been set up, for instance Ibimina through which members of the community save to both cushion themselves against the bad days but also economically empower themselves by accessing credit from such schemes. There is however a long way to go and this calls for a cultural shift for every household to feel the need to save and this shift is best inculcated from a young age, starting from within schools.
