Women IN Business and Roscas Sign Partnership to Digitize Savings Groups in Mozambique
Women IN Business (WIN) and ROSCAS have entered into a strategic partnership with the aim of digitizing the Savings and Loans Groups (VSLAs), an initiative that seeks to reduce inequalities in access to financial services for low-income women, mainly in rural areas of Mozambique. These groups, made up mainly of women, traditionally operate manually, which presents various risks and limitations.
To address these challenges, WIN and the FTF Premier Oholo Project (PRO) have teamed up with ROSCAS to digitize VSLAs through the ROSCAS platform, certified by Banco de Moçambique’s Sandbox. The platform not only modernizes the management of savings groups, but also offers opportunities to access other services.
After successful initial tests in the district of Alto Molócuè (Zambézia province), the digitization model will be expanded to districts in Nampula province. WIN, together with the PRO Project, will play an important role in supporting this expansion by providing technical support and training.
The main objective of the partnership is to improve the financial inclusion and economic empowerment of rural women. This partnership will support the testing and expansion of the platform to make VSLAs more efficient and resilient, reducing the risks associated with manual savings. This action is expected to reach around 21,500 beneficiaries, of which 14,000 (65%) will be women producers. Influencing an increase in financial and digital literacy among rural women; improvement in the management of individual savings, easier access to agricultural financing and digitization of savings groups.
It is expected that 7,984 women will adopt good financial practices, and 6,474 will be economically empowered, enabling them to increase their savings and expand their businesses. The partnership will promote the financial inclusion of women who were previously excluded from the formal financial system, strengthening their ability to manage and control their finances.
The main goal of this partnership between Women IN Business, the PRO Project and ROSCAS is to develop a cooperation framework to digitize rotating savings and credit groups (VSLAs) in northern Mozambique, with the aim of improving the financial inclusion and economic empowerment of women in rural areas. The partnership seeks to co-develop training materials on digital and financial literacy with a gender perspective, in addition to establishing a digitized database for VSLAs. Through the implementation of the ROSCAS platform, the aim is to provide full digital accounting capabilities for the groups, including individual reports for members, acceptance of mobile money transactions and strengthening the link between input suppliers, product buyers and financial institutions. Additionally, the partnership aims to jointly support the testing and expansion of the software platform for VSLAs, creating a tracking record and facilitating the connection between savings groups and formal financial services.
This partnership agreement was signed on September 30, 2024 between TechnoServe Mozambique and ROSCAS.
