Digitization of savings and loan project for rural women entrepreneurs in Togo
Approach
Togo is in the process of digitizing its public services and businesses, particularly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The government has launched initiatives to encourage the digital transformation of public enterprises, but what about Togo’s informal sector companies? A survey showed 85.5% of listed companies operate in the informal sector. According to the data, more than 80% of women in Togo work in the informal sector. A situation that leads to precariousness and job insecurity for these workers, as they lack regulation and social protection. The challenges specific to women in the informal sector in Togo are many and when it comes to women in rural areas we would say they are innumerable. Digitalization has enabled many women in Togo’s cities to develop their businesses by selling products on social networks through the internet. Women post their products on social networks and payments are made on their Flooz or Tmoney mobile account. Unfortunately, the number of women who have accessed the digitization program is decreasing from the capital to the rural areas, where certain women with agricultural practices have been completely left out of technology in their entrepreneurial activities. CARE’s programs in Togo support women’s agriculture through training, knowledge sharing and access to savings and loans. In rural Togo, some NGOs support rural women in empowerment trainings and women’s savings and loan groups. A traditional project that requires a lot of time to carry out the activities, and generates a lot of social insecurity (waking up at four in the morning as a woman…) economic insecurity, by keeping the money with the treasurers in their homes, who complain of suffering from fear, insomnia, etc. It is essential to convert this traditional project of savings and loans in Togo to a project with digitalization, this will allow women to develop out of social and economic insecurity and also to have a quality of life. Create a mobile account for the savings and loan groups where each member of the group could transfer their savings safely. There is a need for maximum inclusion of rural women entrepreneurs in Togo’s digitalization program; they can do it too.
Questions and comments to the author/s
Thank you very much Akloté for this positive presentation. It may be interesting to your audience, much in line with the questioning of @Roser, If you encountered any negative aspects to this state-led push for integrating women's informal savings groups into the digital infrastructure. In Uganda, very single transaction done digitally, or through mobile accounts carries a charge, which is not the case with cash. It will be interesting to hear your responses to the questions and comments in this panel. I am sure they will open up new perspectives on the Togo experience.
Thank you very much for your question or rather for your reflection. After sharing the idea of digital transformation of the savings and lending project with some rural women's groups in Togo, the first thing they had questioned was the savings and lending fees. They had many concerns about the fees for mobile transfers by T. Money or Flooz. Actually in the case of Togo, mobile transfer fees are very expensive. For example, in the case of women savings and loans, to save by mobile account, women will have to pay ten percent of their savings amount. In other words, instead of saving only 1000 francs, they will have to transfer 1100 francs into the group's mobile account. It is obvious that those who will benefit the most from the project will be the banks. But we have to measure the advantages and disadvantages of the project. With the digital transformation of the traditional savings and loan project, we will easily reach all vulnerable rural women in Togo, the women could learn project ideas from other women internationally, the groups could benefit from the permanent follow-up and supervision of their projects, it will be possible to integrate excluded women (for reasons of time, machismo, etc.), etc. into the project. In the end we realize that it is really worth paying the bank transfer fees, even if they are very expensive for the security of the groups' money, because keeping a money box at home with 3000 or 8000 euros is very dangerous and there are already cases where the money has been stolen. We also think that with this project we can get with the ministry of communication a special reduction of the transfer commissions for the savings and loan groups for rural women.
