Sierra Leone YMCA savings groups assists entrepreneur slum dwellers

Margaret Bayoh, with her savings book.

“Before I joined the federation savings scheme, I had never saved my money in the bank. Today, with my daily savings of 500 to 1 000 leones, I have money in the bank for my children's education. This initiative has been very helpful, given that it creates the opportunity to save my loose coins which I used to spend carelessly before. Additionally, it gives me a sense of purpose and commitment to save towards my children's education.”

Gaima Kamara is a 33-year-old member of Tawopaneh Savings Groups in Kroo Bay in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. She is one of 1 200 members of a savings scheme project facilitated by the Sierra Leone YMCA in slum communities in the capital.

“One of the greatest problems people face in terms of income-generation at a small-scale or entrepreneur level, is that of managing their money. As earning a living is difficult, especially in the slum areas, and money tight, saving is a concept that is, in most cases, foreign to people. These people have no experience of it or its benefits for maintaining a sustainable business and family,” said Christian Kamara, National General Secretary of Sierra Leone YMCA.

The first savings group was established in Kroo Bay in February 2008 through the assistance of a partner organisation, People's Dialogue on Human Settlement (PD) in Ghana. This partnership with PD is a result of a tripartite agreement among SLYMCA, PD and Slum Dwellers International (SDI) in South Africa. It enables Sierra Leone YMCA to mainstream SDI best practices in its Slum Livelihood Project, with PD providing leading technical support in the process.

“The savings scheme was born out of the desire to assist people to plan for their future, even after the completion of this particular slum project,” said Christian.

There are now 19 savings groups in 6 slum communities. Members' income is mainly generated through petty trading, and they save at least 100 leones per day. Each group has its own bank account, and the collective income is currently 18 million leones.

The savings groups form part of the Federation of Urban and Rural Poor (FEDURP-SL), which is with the Freetown City Council. Through this vehicle, they now engage with the City Council authorities on issues that affect them in their communities.

Already, FEDURP-SL has done settlement profiling and enumeration of Kroo Bay (and hopes to continue with other slums) to collect information for future advocacy drives. The process was conducted through technical support from Slum Federations in Ghana and Kenya, PD and Pamoja Trust. Federation members were practically involved in the planning, collection and collation of data.

Women comprise 80% of the group members and this has a positive impact on both family and community planning. Margaret Bayoh, a Dworzack slum resident said, “Before joining the scheme, I never had money saved in the bank. Today, I have saved 450,000 leones towards my dream of owning a house. I will continue this process till death. I see the federation as very relevant for the community, given that it promotes unity among its membership and also creates opportunity for members to meet, plan and discuss issues affecting their lives and the community.”

During weekly meetings group members discuss issues affecting themselves and their communities and how the savings scheme funds will be utilised. Currently, most of the money is utilised to create a pool to establish a revolving micro-credit scheme so that members can invest and increase their income to be able to save. Sierra Leone YMCA is planning on providing an additional fund to be added to their savings to increase the funds so that more members can benefit at a time.

International exchange visits to and from Ghana and Kenya for the members of these savings groups has involved them in a sharing of experiences of how much the savings scheme and federation work has improved the lives of their counterparts in the other countries.

Rider: This article originally appeared in Siyahamba (no. 16), newsletter of the Africa Alliance of YMCA