Blog: Advans continues to develop its savings offer

At Advans, we believe that the sustainability of our activity lies in our ability to meet the identified needs of our customers and offer them adapted products and services through an approach integrating complementary solutions such as savings. On the occasion of World Savings Day 2021 we decided to have a closer look at the role that savings play for our clients.

The key role of savings in mitigating the negative effects of the Covid crisis

In 2020, the Covid crisis highlighted the key role of savings for the resilience of our customers. In the face of the pandemic, savings were the main coping mechanism used by 52%[1] of our clients. Raising awareness of the benefits of saving and developing a savings culture are therefore essential to foster financial inclusion. In this difficult context, we put the focus on digital communication to and with our clients. Promoting our digital channels facilitated exchanges with our customers to reassure them of the reliability of our distribution model with easy access to their savings. Furthermore, simplified channel subscription campaigns took place in several of our subsidiaries to facilitate the process and encourage customers who were not yet using those channels to do so. The development of new channels was also a key point in Advans' strategy to better support our clients and maintain access to their accounts and savings.

Valuable lessons learned in 2020 and look into the future

The commitment of our teams to promote and offer each client a distribution channel adapted to their situation and according to their profile was essential in mitigating the negative consequences of the crisis. In Cameroon, for example, a subscription campaign to the Bank to Wallet service increased the average number of subscriptions to 2,300 at the beginning of 2020 compared to 766 in 2019. Despite the health crisis, thanks to the various actions put in place to ensure the best support for our clients and the focus on strengthening their financial resilience, the group marked a 10% growth in outstanding deposits at end 2020 compared to the end of 2019.

In the coming months, we will continue to focus on innovation with improved products and new services to best meet the needs of our customers and their individual situations. 

[1] 2020, 60 Decibels study with 3054 clients interviewed across 7 countries: Cambodia, Cameroon, Ghana, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tunisia.