Savings are the population cash income that are deferred in order to accumulate a certain amount to meet their needs in the future.

PURPOSE OF POPULATION SAVINGS

  • unforeseen circumstances cases
  • Making large purchases (as well as start-up capital for the real estate and cars acquisition)
  • Payment for various celebrations, relaxation, treatment
  • Child Birth, payment for children’s education, weddings, other expenses associated with children
  • Retaining a decent standard of living in retirement

POPULATION SAVINGS BEHAVIOR IN TAJIKISTAN

  • 40% of 1.1 million households make savings
  • 47% of the population lives below the poverty line, so they don’t make savings
  • The population mainly keeps savings at home or invests in goods and livestock
  • The savings main purpose is unforeseen circumstances and savings for long-term goals such as: family celebrations, child education, major acquisitions
  • 11% of them (less than 5% of all households) trust their savings to financial institutions.
  • Only a small percentage of the number of households in Tajikistan trust their savings to commercial banks or MDOs.
  • The reasons for the limited use of financial services in Tajikistan are:
  • Low financial literacy and population savings culture of the Republic of Tatarstan
  • Incompletely restored population confidence of the Republic of Tajikistan as a result of the USSR collapse, unstable economic and political situation (devaluation, denomination, inflation)
  • Looting During Hostilities
  • Insufficient information on the financial market, its products and the investors/depositor rights protection at the level of the Law of the Republic of Tajikistan
  • Financial institutions do not actively attract customers
  • Lack of financial services in hard-to-reach, sparsely populated areas

 

FINANCIAL LITERACY IMPROVEMENT AND PROMOTION OF SAVINGS CULTURE

EXPERIENCE OF TAJIKISTAN

Project on Financial literacy

  • Designed and tested in 2004 – 2005 in Poland
  • Contains materials for trainers on conducting seminars on financial literacy
  • The training module is adapted to the conditions of countries with transitional economies, available in 10 languages (including Tajik)
  • TOT was carried out on the “Plan your future” – training module for 23 trainers from 11 organizations
  • Trainers conducted trainings and consultations – for 4 months 362 participants of trainings and 165 participants of consultations
  • Successfully applied by participating organizations until now