UNCDF Savings Groups' Linkages Toolkit

This toolkit is a guide for FSPs that are either providing or intend to provide financial services to savings groups. The lessons and examples should enable FSPs to effectively provide formal financial services to savings groups in developing countries. The insights and lessons provided in this toolkit are based on the experiences of selected FSPs already providing services to savings groups. These were six UNCDF MicroLead partners in five countries in Africa – Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania. In addition, the team worked with two of WSBI’s Scale2Save2 program partners in Kenya and Uganda.

Leveraging digital financial services to drive efficiency in savings groups linkage. Savings groups’ linkages: Business case parameters and analysis. Step-by-step guide for financial services providers engaging in savings groups linkage projects
or initiatives. The primary target audience for this toolkit is FSPs’ Directors, Managers and Officers. Savings group-facilitating non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Fintechs, governments, and donors can also bene t from this toolkit to understand the factors that FSPs should consider as they build their savings groups’ linkages.
A broad range of FSPs including banks, micro nance institutions (MFIs) and financial technology companies ( Fintechs) are testing savings groups’ linkages to identify evidence, lessons, and insights that would enable FSPs to effectively serve the savings groups market.

This toolkit provides insights from selected FSPs in Africa and aims to complement available publications on savings groups’ linkages. Some of the organizations that have been involved in savings groups facilitation and linkages include the SEEP Network3, CARE International4, Financial Sector Deepening Africa, Plan International and Danish Forum for Micro nance5, among others. These organizations have published reports, guidelines, and manuals on savings groups that may be of interest to the users of this manual. For more information on savings groups in general, see www.mangotree.org.