Innovations in savings behaviour and agricultural business support for women: The Ghanaian 'Money-Box'.

In Ghana, like many African countries, women are financially disadvantaged compared to men, which has encouraged women to form credit associations. This paper examined the "Pagwuni" Women's Group (PWG) in the Northern region of Ghana, where over 93 percent of members are smallholder farmers. Women make regular membership and social fund contributions with records kept in a secured 'money-box', opened at an agreed time. Members receive their money according to the amount contributed while the 'social fund' is for purchasing farm inputs. This study analysed the effect of the Pagwuni Women Group (PWG) financing activities on the financial needs of the group and their households' economic welfare. The study also examined the kind of innovation that this PWG adopts that differs from the traditional Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA). In investigating the sustainability of this 'money-box' model, data was sourced from 150 participants and the group administrators using a mixed research method. Three significant findings were uncovered. First, 93.3 percent of the respondents are peasant farmers. Second, 86.7percent indicated that this money-box arrangement is their only form of savings. Hence, since PWG is a woman-only group, it offers a good opportunity to understand the interconnections between gender and the economic welfare, enhancing the potential benefits of such group savings associations. Third, access to the social fund component of money-box helped the female participants to acquire the equipment and services needed to modernise their farming activities. Policy recommendations to link such rural money box initiatives with formal financial institutions to help channel funds to small-scale female farmers are discussed.