IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/deveza/v15y1998i1p55-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Savings and loan clubs: Risky ventures or good business practice? A study of the importance of rotating savings and credit associations for poor women

Author

Listed:
  • Gina Buijs

Abstract

This article is based on research into rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) which was conducted for the HSRC Cooperative Programme on Marriage and Family Life, in Grahamstown (Rhini) and Zwelitsha, near King William's Town, Eastern Cape, in 1993. One hundred women and men who were members of different ROSCAs were interviewed. These associations had from six to 22 members each. Unstructured interviews with members were the main method of research but meetings and events, organised by members of Roscas in these areas, were also attended The interviews were conducted by the author and three research assistants, two of whom were first-language Xhosa speakers. Use was also made of an aide-memoire based on Ardener (1964). Pseudonyms have been used throughout the article to protect the anonymity of informants. The research found that among poor women, both wage earners and self-employed, membership of a Rosca was a support mechanism in their search for income-earning activities, and a means of maximising their resources. In addition, membership of such schemes provided a supportive environment in which women could enjoy socialising at the weekly meetings, and also make important contacts which assisted them in their business and childcare activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Gina Buijs, 1998. "Savings and loan clubs: Risky ventures or good business practice? A study of the importance of rotating savings and credit associations for poor women," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 55-65.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:deveza:v:15:y:1998:i:1:p:55-65
    DOI: 10.1080/03768359808439995
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03768359808439995
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03768359808439995?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eshetu Bekele & Zeleke Worku, 2008. "Factors That Affect The Longā€Term Survival Of Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises In Ethiopia," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(3), pages 548-568, September.
    2. Ebrahim, M. Shahid, 2009. "Can an Islamic model of housing finance cooperative elevate the economic status of the underprivileged?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 864-883, December.
    3. Ross Esson, 2003. "Savings and Savers: An Analysis of Saving Behaviour among Cape Town's Poor," SALDRU/CSSR Working Papers 059, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:deveza:v:15:y:1998:i:1:p:55-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CDSA20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.