What role do governments play in protecting Savings Groups as financial service providers and their members as financial consumers? This brief paper assesses emerging government efforts to regulate and register Savings Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the regulatory developments identified in this report are quite recent and formal evaluations of their impact are not yet available. Despite the limited evidence, the trend merits further discussion: the regulation of Savings Groups has important implications for market and development actors, and the rights and responsibilities of groups and members.

This paper draws on the experience of the authors, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and two key SEEP Network publications: An Empirical Risk Assessment of Savings Groups (Wheaton 2018), which examines key risks faced by Savings Groups in Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Tanzania and Rwanda; and State of Practice: Savings Groups and the Role of Government in Sub-Saharan Africa (Jarden and Rahamatali 2018), which maps 74 public policies and programs related to Savings Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa.