BK lays strategies to promote saving culture

In a move to promote a saving culture among Rwandans, Bank of Kigali (BK) has laid different strategies targeting all segments of Rwandans. This was said by the bank’s director of commercial division in Martin Kana Mulisa during the press briefing organised ahead of the world saving day that slated for tomorrow. The briefing was part of the ongoing national saving week that started Monday this week. According to Mulisa, the new strategies will be supplemented by the bank’s initiative to open branches across the country to reach out to rural population. Some of the strategies include, Special Saving Plus package which targets high class clients who earn at least Rwf100, 000 and above. Under this savings account, clients will have access to the money after a month and Rwf100, 000 will be kept on the account as the savings. Others are cash extra savings account and student saving targeting middle class people who earns between Rwf50, 000 and 100,000 and students. Extra savings requires Rwf20, 000 and 5000 on student’s savings to open an account which can be accessed any time. Mulisa said that on every saving account one is supposed to keep the money used to open the account as saving and at the end of the year; an interest rate of 4 percent and a commission between 1.5 and 2 percent is given to the client. “The project is five months old but we (BK) have opened 293 accounts excluding accounts for FARG students,” Mulisa said. He noted that all the students at KIST opened savings accounts in BK. With the branches opened in Gicumbi district and Gatuna at the boarder post between Rwanda and Uganda, the Bank hopes to attract more people in the rural community where they would use the savings to access bank loans. “More branches will be opened in rural areas, we want to change the mentality that BK is a bank of rich people,” he said. BK in working jointly with the government to develop umurenge SACCO by providing technical expertise and help low income earners save even with the minimum capacity. Information available indicates that only 11 percent of Rwandans have access to commercial banking services. Lawson Naibo Chief operations Officer in BK said that such initiative aims at mobilizing for deposits which will increase on the lending capacity. “Bk targets to bring out the money under mattresses and by doing so we are increasing the capacity to lend to bankable projects thus changing people’s lives and contributing to the social and economic growth,” Naibo said. BK’s total deposits as of September this year is Rwf110 billion. BK covers 25 percent of the market share with 11 percent Non Performing Loans and 15 branches. Ends

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BK lays strategies to promote saving culture