For many young women, credit is often not experienced as a steppingstone to opportunity, but as a source of significant risk.
As we introduced in our previous blog, CGAP’s recent Focus Note on Pathways to Financial Inclusion for Young Women identifies prioritizing savings over credit as one of three key opportunities for financial service providers (FSPs) and funders. For young women with irregular incomes and limited buffers, savings—rather than borrowing—is the preferred way to build assets and manage uncertainty. The question is not whether to offer savings, but how to design savings products that fit young women’s realities.
Where informal savings work—and where they fall short
Young women are already saving, often through informal mechanisms such as rotating savings groups, susu collectors, or cash kept at home. These tools are familiar, accessible, and socially embedded. Many also provide a form of discipline and accountability.
At the same time, informal tools have clear limitations. Savings may be lost, stolen, or diverted. Liquidity may be either too rigid or too easy. Transactions may not be private. Over time, these constraints make it difficult to build meaningful assets.
Designing for accumulation first may be one of the most effective ways to unlock young women’s financial potential—and the broader promise of inclusive finance.
Formal financial services have an opportunity to improve this—not by replacing informal practices, but by retaining what works while addressing their shortcomings. Most FSPs already offer savings accounts. But access alone is not enough. Standard savings products often assume regular incomes, predictable cash flows, easy access to financial infrastructure, and a high tolerance for either liquidity or rigidity. These assumptions do not hold for many young women.
Design principles for savings that stick
A savings-first approach requires designing products that actively support asset accumulation under conditions of volatility. That means paying attention not only to pricing and onboarding, but to the mechanics of how saving happens over time. CGAP’s research and provider experimentation point to a set of design choices that materially affect whether savings products are used—or abandoned.
Designing for discipline
Many young women value savings because it helps them impose discipline. Products that enable tailored automations—where customers choose the amount, timing, and triggers for deposits—strike a better balance than non-adjustable options. Automation reduces reliance on willpower, while customization preserves agency. For providers, this approach also reduces dormancy by embedding saving into everyday financial behavior. The key is flexibility at setup, followed by consistency in execution.
Using illiquidity strategically
Liquidity is often treated as an unqualified benefit. In practice, some degree of illiquidity can protect savings from impulse spending or external demands. Effective savings products introduce strategic friction: soft locks, cooldown periods, or commitment windows that slow withdrawals without making funds inaccessible. Crucially, exit options must be clear and reliable. Products that trap funds risk eroding trust, particularly among first-time formal savers. Balanced illiquidity is less about restricting access than about shaping timing.
Making progress visible
When deposits are small and irregular, progress can feel abstract. Goal-oriented design helps make saving tangible. Simple features—such as named goals, progress bars, milestone notifications, or modest rewards—can reinforce motivation and sustain engagement. These elements are especially important early on, when habits are still forming, and balances remain low. From a provider perspective, goal-based savings also creates natural hooks for future product offerings aligned to life events or livelihood investments.
Mobile money as infrastructure, not just a channel
Mobile money platforms offer an effective foundation for savings products, particularly where they are already part of daily financial activity. Privacy, convenience, and immediacy matter—but design choices still determine outcomes.
Fees are a decisive factor. Even low transaction costs can discourage frequent saving. Some providers have addressed this through fee-free savings corridors, minimum thresholds, or by bundling savings with other services to increase perceived value.
Social features require equal care. While some young women welcome peer benchmarks or accountability, others prioritize privacy. Opt-in social functionality allows providers to serve both preferences without imposing one model.
Applying these principles: GSusu in Ghana
These design considerations are reflected in GSusu, a mobile savings product developed by GMoney, a bank-owned mobile money subsidiary in Ghana that operates a digital wallet with 1 million users.
GSusu was designed to lower barriers to saving for young women while supporting long-term customer retention and engagement. The product includes low opening balance requirements:
- Customizable automatic transfers from wallet to savings
- Competitive interest rates
- Built-in discipline and accountability mechanisms, tailored incentives, including loyalty features
Rather than positioning savings as a standalone product, GSusu integrates saving into routine wallet use. This reduces friction for customers while supporting acquisition and retention objectives for the provider.
Implications for providers and funders
Prioritizing savings is not a retreat from commercial viability for FSPs. Savings products that reflect young women’s needs can deepen engagement, improve retention, and create pathways to broader financial relationships over time. As G-Money attests, designing to overcome the barriers faced by young women can also create offerings that are accessible and appealing to a wider set of low-income segments.
Young women already save. The question is whether formal financial services help or hinder that effort.
For funders, the implications are equally clear. Small-balance savings often struggle to compete with credit on short-term profitability. Targeted support—such as product development support, timebound interest top-ups, savings matches, or prize-linked mechanisms—can help derisk experimentation and shift the economics of small-balance savings mobilization, speeding product viability.
Aligning incentives toward asset building, rather than early indebtedness, requires coordination across providers, funders, and policymakers.
Designing for accumulation
Young women already save. The question is whether formal financial services help or hinder that effort. Savings products that are automatic but flexible, protective but accessible, and structured around real goals can help young women build assets without increasing risk. For financial institutions, they also offer a pathway to deeper relationships with a new generation of customers. Designing for accumulation first may be one of the most effective ways to unlock young women’s financial potential—and the broader promise of inclusive finance.
