• Burundi
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  • Capacity Building
  • Financial Literacy
  • Financial Literacy

Information Guide

In partnership with banks, microfinance and other stakeholders, the Government through the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (BRB) seeks to equip the population with knowledge on the themes of:

  • Management of income-generating activities,
  • savings in groups,
  • Main reasons for saving,
  • Techniques or strategies relating to savings,
  • Types of income-generating activities in the surrounding environment,
  • Daily savings procedures

contacts:

Government Avenue
BP 705 BUJUMBURA
Tel: (257) 22 20 40 00 / 22 22 27 44
Fax: (257) 22 22 31 28
email: brb@brb.bi

Financial education in Burundi

In Burundi , financial education (FE), which is a non-financial service offered by Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs ) and banks in general and other actors in the capacity building of women for financial inclusion, has a great importance in the economy of the country.

Burundi is implementing its financial education policy through its national Financial Inclusion Strategy . Financial education is enabling beneficiaries to be equipped and to have access to credit regardless of the barriers that may arise to prevent them.

Financial education is the understanding of knowledge related to how money is earned, spent and saved, as well as the skills and ability to use financial resources to make informed and effective decisions with all available resources.

There are several studies, reports and other reference tools on financial inclusion and education on interventions led and implemented by different actors.

The results of the various documents show that the level of inclusion and financial education of women in Burundi are not satisfactory.

angle-left Financial Education in Burundi

Financial Education in Burundi

In Burundi, the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (BRB) contributes enormously to the promotion of financial inclusion which is measured, in particular and above all, by the rate of the adult population having a deposit account in a formal financial institution. At the end of the first national survey on financial inclusion conducted by the BRB in 2012, with funding from the German Technical Cooperation/Alliance for Financial Inclusion (GTZ/AFI) and through a Technical Firm recruited to this end, it turned out that the financial inclusion rate in Burundi was only 12.5% and that women and young people are less likely than men to use formal financial products and services.

In summary, the survey showed that the Burundian population uses informal financial systems more than the services offered by formal financial institutions, whether to save, borrow or transfer funds. The use of informal systems can result from many factors including the greater accessibility of these systems, the lack of financial education and knowledge of financial institutions, the remoteness of the service points of formal financial institutions and the real or perceived obstacles to access to their services, as well as other socio-cultural factors. The challenge for formal financial institutions is therefore to inform and convince the population of the advantages of formal financial products and services.

State of financial inclusion in Burundi

In order to monitor the evolution of key financial inclusion indicators, the BRB has conducted a national survey on the supply of financial products and services every year since 2014. The various ad hoc survey reports show that the financial inclusion rate was 20.88% at the end of 2017 and that the gap between men and women is smaller for customers who are members of associations than for individuals. The same statistics show that women generally use financial services less than men, even though they constitute more than half of the adult population of Burundi.

Indeed, at the end of 2017, the distribution of deposits by gender shows that women are the least likely to hold a deposit account both for individual customers (30.50% of deposit accounts) and for those who are members of associations. ( 22.74% of deposit accounts) and save by far less than men both in associations ( 37.28% of outstanding deposits) and individually ( 28.89% of outstanding deposits) .

The same situation is observed for loans where the distribution of loans by sex shows that women have access to loans less than men, both individually and in associations. Indeed, men hold the largest share with 77.19% and 58.08% of the credit account workforce, respectively, for individual customers and those who are members of associations. As for outstanding credit, men hold 77.96% and 86.42% , respectively, for individual customers and for those who are members of associations.

In addition, there is a weak and unequal geographical coverage of service points at the national level.

Financial Education Indicators vs Financial Inclusion

Financial education is one of the catalysts for promoting financial inclusion. Indeed, the results of the 2012 survey showed that the Burundian population suffers from a lack of information on the existence of formal financial institutions and the financial products and services offered by them.

The BRB recognizes that the success of financial education requires the support of all stakeholders in both the private and public sectors.

Potential financial education activities

With regard to financial education, the BRB has not yet undertaken ad hoc activities. However, the activity is still one of the Bank's priorities, especially since it plans, through its action plan, to organize awareness-raising workshops on financial education with a view to discussing with stakeholders on the ways and means of setting up a financial education program for the general public, and for women in particular.

Commitment to financial education

The BRB is committed to launching the process of financial education for women. However, the activity is not yet carried out.

Financial education through capacity building and sensitization of groups or individuals benefiting from financial services is not carried out by the BRB directly. However, within the framework of the commitment made on financial education by the BRB, financial education could be carried out by the Bank or the institutions subject to it such as credit establishments and Microfinance institutions as well as field partners. Awareness-raising and training would then deal with topics such as cash management, business creation, savings, loans, etc. The financial education modules could also refer to and be inspired by already existing models such as the one called 'NaweNuze' adopted by the Government of Burundi as a reference. They could also simply be developed in-house. We develop the themes of the management of income-generating activities, savings in groups, the main reasons for saving, techniques or strategies relating to savings, case studies and games relating to the techniques of savings, types of income-generating activities in the surrounding environment, daily savings, daily savings procedures including for treasurers.

Potential partnerships

The potential partners of the BRB in its financial education policy are, among others, credit institutions, microfinance institutions, professional associations such as RIM and ABEF, the Government, ministries, projects and programs or NGOs involved in the areas of financial inclusion and which develop financial education components such as CARE International, COPED, FIDA, FVS etc…

Events

The BRB organizes workshops and conferences for the public and the financial sector under its supervision on various themes of financial inclusion:

- 2012: first national conference on financial inclusion with a view to bringing the subject of financial inclusion to the center of national political debate;

- 2012: two workshops to present the provisional and final results of the 2012 survey;

- 2014: reflection workshop on the results of the 2012 survey and presentation of the results of the annual survey on supply conducted in 2014;

- 2014: workshop to present the National Financial Inclusion Strategy in Burundi (2015-2020);

- 2018: workshop to exchange knowledge and experiences on the implementation of a national strategy for financial inclusion, financial education and protection of consumers of financial products and services

Addresses

1 Government Avenue

BP 705 BUJUMBURA

Tel: (257) 22 20 40 00 / 22 22 27 44

Fax: (257) 22 22 31 28

Contact Persons

Mr. Jean Claude Ndayisenga +25779241112

Mrs. DianeJocelyn Bizimana +25775544022

email: brb@brb.bi

email: jcndayisenga@brb.bi / djbizimana@brb.bi