AKF: Community-based savings groups (CBSG)
Formal financial institutions are not always able to meet the needs of the very poor, particularly those living in remote areas. Nonetheless, poor men and women need access to small amounts of savings and credit to help smooth erratic incomes, meet planned expenses, make timely investments and cope with emergencies.
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Community-Based Savings Programme (CBSG)
In 2009 AKF established the Community-Based Savings Programme (CBSG) to promote community-managed financial services in the disadvantaged communities where it works. This built on decades of experience with community-managed microfinance approaches, but offered a less cost-intensive approach. CBSGs respond directly to the financial service needs of the remote and rural poor by providing a secure, convenient place to save and take small loans on flexible terms. The CBSG savings opportunity is particularly well suited to the remote rural poor.
CBSGs are self-managed groups of 15-25 people and systems are kept simple and transparent to promote independence from AKF, and maintain transparency for members. There are more than 400,000 AKF CBSG members, of which 73% were women, saving more than $13 million per year.
Check out AKF’s CBSG dashboard for the latest numbers and locations of AKF’s CBSG programme.