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In Ghana, less than 10% of the population has a bank account. However, the majority of the people use traditional forms of banking that go back centuries.
Susu collectors offer basic banking to the needy. For a small fee these collectors collect money daily from their customers – usually small traders at the market or micro-entrepreneurs selling from roadside stalls – then return it at the end of each month, providing greater security for their client’s money.
One drawback to this system is that the collectors themselves are often holding larges sums of cash. They also are unable to help their customers with loans, since their unconventional system does not provide them with large amounts of capital.
In a pilot program, Barclays is providing Susu collectors with deposit accounts and loans to on-lend. Barclays is also providing training for the collectors and financial education for the traders.
The philosophy behind this microbanking initiative is that a truly financially inclusive society can only be achieved by supporting existing, indigenous financial institutions that already provide financial services.
“The Susu collectors are an indigenous system that has been in place for 300 years,” says Dr. William Derban, Barclays' manager of financial inclusion. “Our philosophy in working with them is to understand the indigenous system and determine improvements that will beneficial for both the local population and the bank.”
Barclays' microbanking initiative in Ghana comprises three strands, explains Derban.
“We started by offering banking services to the collectors. Our next focus is a financial awareness program to help people gain the confidence to use basic financial skills in the effective management of their money. Our third emphasis will be on capacity building, particularly for the collectors, in areas such as credit risk management.”
Barclays is taking great pains to work within the existing system rather than undermining it, says Derban. “Barclays is not trying to replace the collector or take his business away by having the traders deposit their money directly. We are just providing a banking service, and are very happy to be outside the system.
“It’s not just about doing good, it’s about doing something that’s a part of our business. We offer free training and information on savings and budgets, and we make it possible for the collectors to offer loans to their customers.”
Derban says the goal of the program is not necessarily to replicate the new system elsewhere, but to develop a structure that will work with any indigenous system.
“We may not be able replicate exactly what we have in Ghana elsewhere, but we will have learned how to go somewhere else and work with the system already in place.”
Derban, who is from Ghana himself, hopes that Barclays has been able to design a product that will help his birth country. “We don’t have to bring products in from Europe and America. We can look at the market and design products that work here. And to me that’s the only way finance can play its rightful role in the development process.” | 
