Where three in four of us actually save

Yesterday I counted doors. Every one of the five that opened needed a bank account, a payroll or a broker to walk through, which means all five begin with the quarter of us who already hold one. So, what do the other three quarters do? They save, and they save well.

UNCDF's MERI project runs what it calls the Self-Reliance Group model, working with market vendors at Gordons, Lae, Goroka and Vanimo. Members put in equal amounts each week and borrow against the pool, and UNCDF describes the groups as letting members “save together, and access small loans without the need for collateral or formal documentation”. That last clause is the whole design. The money each member puts in is the security. The group is the credit check. A bank would want a payslip and a title deed, and the group wants your attendance.

Women's Micro Bank, which everyone calls Mama Bank, reaches women through access points at Morata, Madang, Wewak, Maprik and Goroka, working off a tablet and a fingerprint in place of a passbook. Lending runs from K300 for a woman selling at a market table to K300,000 for a business that has outgrown the first number. More than 13,000 women hold shares in the bank itself, which makes them owners as well as customers.

Wok meri has moved money between Highlands women since before I was born, and I came late to its sums. All of it holds money, circulates it and builds trust a bank has no way to price.

All three of those are women's systems. Donor programmes fund women's groups, so women's groups are the ones that get written up. What men and mixed households run through churches, clans and workmates stays where my first paragraph put it, in people's heads.

Here is the part I keep turning over. What those systems do is store. What a fund does is compound. A rotating group hands you back your own money when your turn comes, and the pool grows because people keep putting money in. A fund grows on what it already holds. I wrote that down twice before it registered.

Which is why Eda Supa stayed in my head all week. It is the only door I found that crosses between the two. K100 opens it, K20 a month keeps it, and Nasfund names farmers, sole traders, small business owners and landowner royalty recipients in its own description of who it is for. A woman selling buns at a market table can hold the same fund as a public servant. Whether the women in those groups know that, is a question I have yet to put to anybody.

So here is my ask, and it is the reason for this post. If you save in a group, tell me how yours works. How much goes in, how often, who holds it, and what happens when somebody misses a week. If your group is men, or mixed, I want to hear from you most, because those are the ones nobody has written up. I will keep your name out of it, if you like. You will have a chance to read it before it runs, and can decide what stays in.

Three in four of us are already doing the hard part, which is putting money aside every week when nine other places want it.

Best

Amanda

P.S. What’s your view on today’s newsletter? Did I miss something out that you’d like to share? Write to me, [email protected]. I may not get back to you, but I will try to read what you send in.

Wild Money is general information only, drawn from my own experience and research. It isn't financial advice, and nothing in it is a recommendation to buy, sell, hold or manage money in any particular way. What worked for me won't necessarily suit you. Please seek advice from a licensed financial adviser before making decisions about your own money.