Economists will tell you that people save their money for three main reasons. For transaction purposes, for speculation purposes, and for precautionary purposes, all of which are very much true. The advent of mobile money has gradually wiped away traditional methods of saving money, providing much more convenient and reliable platforms encouraging more people to nurture the culture of savings.
A Geopoll study on how youths in six African countries spend, save and invest just highlighted how the introduction of digital financial services is giving the banking industry a run for their where innovations like mobile money are taking over. The study based on data collected from youth populations in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire focused on topics including income streams, spending habits, payment types, investment decisions, savings patterns, and more.
For the longest time, most Africans have been saving their money in bank accounts. A handful still prefers Karimos while some stash it under their mattresses. However, the study revealed that are a majority of youths in Kenya are saving more on their mobile money accounts. According to the study, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Nigeria, bank accounts were the most popular savings platform, and Ghanaians indicated saving through bank accounts more than any other country.
Mobile money accounts were the second most popular savings platform, yet the popularity varied more county-to-country than we found with bank accounts. In Nigeria, bank accounts were much more popular than mobile money accounts as a savings platform. In Kenya, mobile money accounts were used only 6% more than bank accounts as a savings platform, a clear indicator that the platform has quickly gained tractions.
Savings groups, cash in safe places, Saccos and Money Cooperative societies were among other platforms that the respondents used to save their money.
