Women are better savers than men

 
Many people think that women spend their money on worthless things.. But Inez Murray, the head of the Global Banking Alliance thinks otherwise. In fact, Murray wants banks to give women loans without collateral saying they are better savers in a home.

BY CAROL NATUKUNDA

Moving by bus in India one day, Inez Murray, the head of Global Banking Alliance (GBA) looked through the window to admire the horizon. Something caught her attention. It was a group of frail looking women on a stone quarry.

They were hitting up big rocks into smaller gravel.  And, as Murray later learnt, working on a quarry was all these women did for a living. Murray was not just appalled, she was also angry that their husbands were sitting at a street corner and just smoking away without a bother in the world.

“When I asked I was told, these men depend on their wives income,” she says.  That was her turning point. An Irish national, Murray decided she would take up a career that would help women globally to become their own entrepreneurs so that they could have enough savings in place.

And for 17 years, she worked with the Women’s World Banking until November 2012 when she was appointed the executive director of the Global Banking Alliance, global consortium of leading financial institutions driving women's business growth,

 “I feel that women are extremely apart of economic development,” Murray says, “I feel that if a women is empowered then families will be better. Women are best savers in the home, they are better at repaying loans, they are loyal customers and they generally care more for their families.”

She says from her work experience, she has discovered that a lot of women are far too kind, that they hardly save anything from their business profits.

“Women are taking money out of their small businesses, to help a sick relative or give to her husband who will misuse it. I am not saying that they should be too secretive, but you need to be conservative with your money at some point. If it is for the business, don’t touch it,” she says.

Murray also observes that it is important for women to work or at least own a small business. “When you have a fallback, you are stronger and more confident to negotiate in all aspects of life.”

With her new role at GBA, Murray promises to push for the need for banks to help African women access to access loans without collateral.

“You are a woman with a small business, how do you access money without collateral?  It works in such a way that the bank itself is collateral. Or maybe why not have movable assets you have as collateral? We are trying to find solutions to collateral problem,” she says.

Murray was recently on a working visit to Uganda to build innovative, comprehensive programs that provide women entrepreneurs with vital access to capital, markets, education, and training.

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