Informal service providers such as rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), accumulating savings and credit associations (ASCAs) and other community based savings solutions are a core part of people’s financial portfolio in Kenya.

Natasha is a young woman who has a cake baking business on the outskirts of Nairobi. She has a bank account for her business which she uses intensively. Natasha’s business was doing well and she needed a loan to expand.

The financial services for the poor, or more specifically financial inclusion, industry has realised in the recent past that more and better information about its target client-base is essential to delivering services effectively.

FSD Kenya commissioned Oxford Policy Management (OPM) to conduct an in-depth impact assessment of their savings groups programmes which were undertaken in collaboration with two international non-governmental organisations, CARE and Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

FSD Kenya invested substantially in supporting savings groups (SGs) based on the hypothesis that these kinds of informal services are more accessible to underserved markets.

During his visit for the FSD Kenya 3rd annual lecture, John Kay visited Haki Group, a Self Help Group registered in 2002 but graduated to a Community Based Organization in 2005 to mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS in Kibera.

Can digital innovations replicate the “three-padlock” concept of the money box?

Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSD Kenya) has worked since 2008 with CARE and, since August 2012, with CRS, to develop, test and perfect different models or channels for forming, training and supporting Savings Groups (SGs).

In September 2011, FSD Kenya conducted a short study of savings groups created under the Community Savings and Loans (COSALO I) project, funded by FSD and implemented by CARE International in Kenya.