The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Respect, Educate, Nurture and Empower Women (RENEW) Micro Financing Private Limited (RMFPL) celebrated the World Savings Day for the second time in Bhutan. Savings Day was established 97 years ago in Milano, Italy.
World Savings Day is observed on 31 October across the world. The day is celebrated to promote personal savings, remind oneself the importance of regularly saving for having protection net, and to remind that savings help an individual in achieving goals. Unemployment and poverty make it necessary to educate people on savings culture.
CEO of RMFPL, Bernd Baehr, shared that the project was started with the resolution to promote the culture of saving, as it is relevant to individual and economy. World Savings Day is promoted through educational films, medias, music, road shows, etc.
“Savings makes one financially secure, and therefore, it’s important to save. Savings are important for any emergencies. Most of our clients save money for their children and for a better future. The savings with RENEW microfinance has increased, its average saving per client has increased by 5,000 clients 5 years ago to 10,000 clients now,” he said.
RMFPL also serves the rural areas in Bhutan, and initiates various activities to encourage savings. Painting competition, savings games simulation and piggy-bank competitions were some of the activities initiated.
“To further encourage savings, we have conducted short film competition in schools and colleges on savings. We have trained 701 students and 500 farmers to learn how to forecast, on which crop to invest, how to find a market, and on how to deal with the demand,” he added.
The RMFPL 2020 annual report shows that the saving volume had increased to Nu 212.6 million (mn) in 2020 from Nu 2.9 mn.
RMFPL was started 10 year ago by Her Majesty the Queen Mother Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuck.
RENEW microfinance was started in 2012 and was undertaken by Deutsche Sparkassenstiftung für International Kooperation (DISK) which is funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany.
A team of students from Gyalpozhing College of Information Technology won the short video competition, and Jigme Losel School won the piggy bank competition.
