YOUTH GLOW INC.
Programme Step 4 of 4 · Save
Savings that keep families out of poverty.
We set up and strengthen village savings and loan groups, train existing groups to start new ones, and move them onto digital records and mobile money so members can save, borrow and grow green businesses.
The project
Digitize Microfinance for Rural Development
Savings groups keep the gains and fund the next season. Savings are reinvested in hives, seedlings and equipment, and every group trains a new one, so the model keeps spreading.
- Village savings and loan groups, many led entirely by women
- Digital group records and mobile money for savings, loans and repayments
- Loans for seedlings, hives and equipment
- Groups train groups: each group starts a new one
Technology: Digital savings group records, and mobile money for savings, loans and repayments.
Why it matters
Extreme poverty in Liberia fell to 33.1% in 2024, yet in 2024 only 46.3% of Liberian women had a bank or mobile money account, against 58.1% of men.
47.6% of people in Nimba lack a mobile phone, so digital savings must also reach members without a phone of their own.
In most Liberian counties, fewer than 45% of households can get a loan. In Nimba it is 52%, leaving nearly half without credit for seeds, tools or hives.
71.3% of people in Bong lived in absolute poverty and 55.9% in food poverty in the 2016 household survey.
506,289 Liberians are projected to face crisis-level hunger in June to August 2026, with high food prices a key driver. Savings help families get through the lean season.
A trial with over 12,000 households in Ghana, Malawi and Uganda found savings groups raised business profits by 24% and gave women more say in household decisions.
Sources: World Bank Liberia country context, 2025; World Bank Gender Data Portal (Global Findex 2025); LISGIS, 2022 Census; Cadre Harmonisé, Ministry of Agriculture, January 2026; ILO, 2020; Karlan et al., PNAS, 2017.
Results so far
Verified. More than 15 savings groups set up directly, and 1,583 members in the old and new groups we supported.
Where we aim to be by 2031
Indicative targets. Each project confirms its own after a baseline survey.
Aligned with Liberia’s goals
- AAID 2025–2029
- Economic Transformation Pillar; Human Capital Development Pillar (women, youth, people with disabilities)
- NDC 3.0
- Climate finance to reach women’s cooperatives, smallholders and entrepreneurs
- Rural finance
- Savings groups as the entry point to formal and mobile financial services
Indicators we track
- SDG 8.10.2
- Adults with a bank or mobile-money account
- SAVIX
- Savings per member, loans out, attendance
- Project
- Savings groups using digital records
- Project
- Loans for green enterprises and inputs
- GEF CI 11
- Direct beneficiaries, by sex and age
Fund the Save step.
Each PPSS step can be funded on its own as a project, or as part of the full programme.