USEFUL LINKS

 

 

Savings

In most countries where Opportunity operates, only regulated financial institutions may legally accept savings deposits or commercial investments. Yet savings are crucial for those struggling to operate a small business in an often unstable economy.

 

Therefore, Opportunity International is building a network of microfinance banks, where any hard-working, poor entrepreneur can open an account and deposit savings to insure against catastrophic losses. Since 2000, Opportunity has created seventeen such microfinance banks for the poor — in Albania, China, Ghana, India, Macedonia, Malawi, Mexico, Montenegro, Mozambique, the Philippines (two such institutions), Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia and South Africa.

 

In addition to new bank start-ups, Opportunity also creates banks for the poor by converting existing nongovernmental organization (NGO) programs into formal financial institutions, as it has in Albania, Ghana, the Philippines, Romania and Russia.

 

When banks are difficult to reach on a daily basis, Opportunity steps in with another innovation so that clients don’t have to rely on a spot under their mattress. In Ghana, through Opportunity International Savings and Loans, a “susu collector” goes from stall to stall in the marketplace, collecting from vendors their day’s profits. Once the money is collected, the susu collector records the savings in a book, takes the cash to the bank and makes the deposits for the clients. The money is then available when it is time to purchase more inventory or invest in their business, or in case of emergency.

 

As the Opportunity Network converts more of its programs into formal financial institutions, clients will benefit from more and more of the financial services needed to transform their businesses and their lives.