By Esther Muthoni
When women get their finances together, the whole society is better for it.
Every day, this fact gains growing importance as we at PostBank roll out our products into communities across the country.
The way our society is, by accident or design, financial matters are supposed to be handled by men. The tendency has been that the woman is supposed to be looked after, together with her children. God forbid that the man cannot cater for his family or that his family is not a priority.
In recent years, two things have begun to change this retrogressive way of thinking – widespread education, especially of women, and the pervasiveness of financial products.
More women are going to school now than ever before, allowing them to compete better in the workplace and empowering them with their own financial means. Not fast enough for many of us, but an irreversible trend has been established.
With women earning their own money, they need more access to the formal financial sector and the attendant services. They have earned their money and can now leverage it to improve their lives.
Our mobile wallet, Wendi, has come in handy in this case. Without an account at the bank and using only their mobile phones, they can save, borrow, get insurance, and be in line for any number of services that we have or will come in the future.
Besides the well-known fact that women have been proven better borrowers than men, their repayment rates are nearly 100 percent, we have found through our work with Wendi, that women are more patient – tempted less by the-get-rich-quick schemes, eager to learn and willing to embrace new ways of doing things if they can see a benefit in it for them and especially their families.
There are many stories of women meeting our staff for the first time with nothing but the money stored away in their bras and within months showing visible change – making regularly deposits, taking out loans and even taking advantage of life insurance products, in agriculture and life cover, which for an annual premium of as little as sh65,000 the beneficiaries can get five million shillings.
But what we have found is that. While introducing them to the formal financial sector is a major win, the work we do with women to improve their financial literacy may very well prove the more enduring benefit.
Going back to our patriarchal society, where financial issues were the sole preserve of the men, many women are totally clueless about money and how it works.
Through our programs we teach them the rules of money, how to save, how to keep books, to understand how to borrow, to use insurance. As King Solomon said a fool and his money are soon parted; therefore by improving their financial literacy, the hope is that their newfound access to finance can be sustainable.
For instance, when she opens a Wendi wallet, starts passing her income and expenses through it, a more objective assessment of her financial health can be made, opening her up to opportunities such as credit.
This can be a revelation. Previously, the women may have needed to save for months, even years to buy an asset, say land, but through disciplined use of her mobile wallet, she could qualify to borrow the money to buy the asset. This piece of land can now serve as collateral for a bigger loan.
In addition, women and their groups have come together through our platform, allowing them to achieve more collectively than individually. As they say, if you want to go far, move with others. These collaborations have also had the benefit of improving their financial literacy, as they are better off learning from their peers.
Looking to the future, as more and more women become more financially literate and able to take advantage of the various financial products, we can expect improvements in the living standards at a household level, leading to improvements in the general economy.
In line with our purpose of fostering prosperity for Ugandans, which aligns with our tagline Grow and Prosper, it is quite gratifying to see women hopeless and out of options when they start with us, after a few months, becoming surer of themselves, looking to the future with hope and confidence.
The Author PostBank Uganda’s Supervisor Women Business, High Networth Individuals and Diaspora Banking.
