More than 9,000 poor and extremely poor entrepreneurs living in rural areas in Apurímac and Cusco (Peru), the vast majority of whom are women, have attended talks on financial literacy in Quechua thanks to the “Ahorro para todos” (“Savings for all”) program run by Financiera Confianza.
Almost 8,000 people in this region have received this training, in over 50 rural communities in Apurímac. The program, which was launched in the Cusco area, was extended to Pisac where nearly 1,231 rural entrepreneurs have been trained so far. In the latest stage it has been taken to the Urcos area, where more disadvantaged individuals can now have an opportunity for the future. The bank hopes that by late 2016 some 6,000 people will be able to improve their quality of life through savings.
Financiera Confianza’s “Ahorro para todos” program provides financial literacy training for low-income individuals to help them develop good savings habit, understand the difference between formal and informal savings, learn how to draw up a budget, and see the benefits of products such as insurance and loans.
The training talks take place in the areas where the entrepreneurs live. They use plain and simple terms, and are given in Quechua, their native tongue. Almost 2,000 people have opted to open a savings account with the bank since the program began, 80% of whom were women.
Formal saving improves entrepreneurs’ quality of life as it enables them to organize their family economy. It also gives them security over the resources they have, and helps them plan better.
41% of the customers who opened an account with Financiera Confianza through this program did so with their children’s education in mind, 21% are saving for unexpected emergencies, 16% are saving for healthcare reasons, and 8% to open a business or set up an enterprise.
The program is run with funding from FOMIN, CitiFoundation, AusAid, in addition to the bank’s own funding.