Below is a highlight of each country’s activities for the World Savings Day 2020 celebrations:

Burundi

German Sparkassenstiftung Eastern Africa (DSIK) in Burundi, together with Le Réseau des Institutions de Microfinance (RIM) Burundi in its financial education program, opted for a competitive approach to encourage cooperative members to save more to improve their financial security.

DSIK in Burundi organized competitions between different cooperatives from 19 MFIs part of the financial education project, who received financial education training since August 2020. Based on selection criteria, the cooperatives that saved the most received prizes such as watering cans, watering pumps, umbrellas, T-shirts, and backpacks.    

This year’s World Savings Day in Burundi, DSIK in collaboration with RIM, chose to celebrate the day on November 6^th instead of October 31^st, the official day. A press conference was hosted to inform the public on the objective of the World Savings Day celebrations. A summary briefing was given on the outcomes achieved since DSIK in Burundi together with RIM started encouraging people to save in 2012. 

The press conference closed with the presentation of awards to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) with large deposit amounts. They were CECM and Inyishu MF in the Large MFIs category and CORILAC and TUJANE Microfinance in the Young MFIs category in the presence of other microfinance institutions operating in Burundi to encourage them to sensitize their clients to save more.

Tanzania

The World Savings celebrations in Tanzania were marked early due to the elections that were expected to happen later in October 2020. DSIK in Tanzania started celebrating their World Savings Week from 1^st to October 10^th and had their own country theme, "Be smart save." Together with their partners, Akiba Commercial Bank, Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC), Savings and Credit Co-Operative Union League of Tanzania (SCCULT), Tanzania Association of Microfinance Institutions (TAMFI), the country office organized several events to emancipate Tanzanians on the importance of saving and promote financial education in general.

The planned activities for the event were supposed to be graced by over 1000 participants. Still, due to coronavirus restrictions, the number was reduced to 350 to adhere to COVID-19 measures.

One of the activities which was part of the World Savings Week was a visitation to schools. From October 1^st to the 8^th, twelve schools in the Mwanza region were visited by DSIK in Tanzania and their partners in financial education Akiba Commercial Bank and DTB Bank. They conducted savings mobilization to schools' kids and teachers.

More than 3,500 students from Mwanza have been provided with financial education and the savings mobilization during the visitation week was a continuation of the financial education program. DSIK in Tanzania and their partners were able to see the various schools' progress due to their interventions. Some of the achievements were:

• Some schools started implementing savings education by setting up vegetable gardening businesses to obtain money/income for savings
• Parents have become aware of the importance of opening accounts for their kids, as the number of accounts opened this year for students was more than 200 by the month of November
• Students have become our good ambassadors on spreading financial education. They were able to educate their parents on financial education and savings as it was a month of graduation ceremony
•  During World Savings Week, we were impressed by young savings pioneers who have started to save thanks to their parents' support

On October 9^th , DSIK in Tanzania conducted a "marketplace for financial education and savings forum" to the partners and schoolteachers to promote financial education and raise awareness on savings.

During the event, Tanzania's Country Director, Mr. Stephen Safe, was interviewed, and he highlighted the achievements that have been made so far in the financial education front:

• So far, in Mwanza Region, 3,500 students had benefited from financial education, while in Karagwe District, 3,000 had also benefited from such education
• Financial education had been provided to SACCOS and Microfinance members to plan their finances wisely

The World Savings Week events in Tanzania were covered by various media platforms such as ITV, TBC, Star TV, newspapers, and online blogs. 

Uganda

The World Savings Week celebrations in Uganda were also affected by Covid-19 regulations which restricted people gatherings. Most of the events marking the World Savings Week and Day were conducted either digitally or required few participants. 

The celebrations in Uganda kicked off with a radio talk show at Capital Radio on October 28^th, where the Country Director, Edigold Monday was the main panelist. She talked about the genesis of the World Savings Day, why and when it is marked? And the importance of savings in general. The radio interview attracted a lot of feedback from the listeners who wanted to know more about the World Savings Day and were adequately informed.

On October 30^th, the Uganda team published a newspaper article in New Vision Uganda, written by the Deputy Country Director, Inka Mackenbrock. The article emphasized the importance of financial education in improving financial security and how Sparkassenstiftung is improving the promotion of financial education in Uganda, especially among school children and their families.

On World Savings Day (October 31^st), Sparkassenstiftung Uganda hosted an E-Conference titled “Growth and Recovery of Savings in the Face of COVID-19”. The panelists were moderated by the Country Director, Edigold Monday and included various Sparkassenstiftung Uganda partners. The key message from the e-panel sessions noted how Ugandans could recover from the dip in their savings due to the pandemic witnessed, which forced people and businesses to utilize their savings.

Rwanda

DSIK in Rwanda’s World Savings Week celebrations were marked from October 28^th to 31^st, under the country theme "SAVE TODAY AND SECURE YOUR TOMORROW”. Together with their partner, Rwanda Institute for Cooperatives, Entrepreneurship and Microfinance (RICEM), they organized a financial education training to mark the World Savings Day. 

The financial education training targeted non-financial cooperatives. The participants were trained on the basic knowledge of financial literacy and the importance of the World Savings Day. The key issues covered in training were (why, how, when, and where) to save. 

The mode of the training was in practical form. The participants engaged in simulated games on savings. The participants profoundly valued the training and promised to share the knowledge, skills, and attitudes gained with their counterparts who did not participate in the training.