Melinda Gates: “Saving Money is a Lifesaver”

In this week’s Newsweek, Melinda French Gates—co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—makes the case for access to saving instruments as an oft-overlooked element of global poverty reduction. Citing the microcredit boom as opening doors for the poor, she cautions:

But loans are not enough. Savings accounts could help people in the developing world weather unexpected events, accumulate money to invest in education, increase their productivity and income, and build their financial security.

She continues:

Fortunately, this is a moment of opportunity. Innovation and new policy ideas are uniting in ways that will lower the cost of savings and bring safe financial services to the doorsteps of the poor.

Referring to agent and mobile banking as exciting innovations with much potential to bring financial services to the poor (including a safe place to save), Gates emphasizes the urgency of the moment to bring such innovations to billions around the globe.

We couldn’t be more in agreement. At the heart of the Global Assets Project is its mission to advance policies and innovations that advance low- to moderate-income individuals’ ability to build savings and assets. This includes instruments that could be channels to bringing financial services to the billions who lack it. From linking the many conditional cash transfer programs that are sprouting around the world to savings and access to financial service, to giving young people access to a place to save, to connecting remittance services to savings instruments—the possibilities are many.