History of the World Savings Day

The World Savings Day was established on October 31st in 1924, during the 1st International Savings Bank Congress (World Society of Savings Banks) in Milano, Italy. The Italian professor, Filippo Ravizza, declared this day the "International Saving Day" on the last day of the congress.

World Savings Day or World Thrift Day was established to inform people all around the world about the idea of saving their money in a bank rather than keeping it under their mattress. There had been some examples of days that were committed to the idea of saving money to gain a higher standard of life and to secure the economy. For example, the first national thrift day was celebrated in 1921. In other countries, such as Germany, peoples’ confidence in savings had to be restored because many people did not even think of saving since they had lost close to everything in the German monetary reform of 1923.

After the Second World War, World Thrift Day continued and reached the peak of its popularity in the years between 1955 and 1970. It became a veritable tradition in certain countries. In Austria, for instance, the official mascot of saving, the so-called ‘Sparefroh’ (literally: ‘Happy Saver’) reached a higher degree of brand awareness than the republic’s President and even a street was named after him. In the 1970s the ‘Sparefroh-Journal’, an educational magazine for younger people, reached a circulation of 400,000 copies.

Background and objective of the project

World Savings Day is an event created to increase the public’s awareness of the importance of savings both for modern economies and for individuals alike. Savings is important in the global economy and every depositor contributes to its development.

German Sparkassenstiftung, on the 31st of October 2019 in partnership with Jireh Microfinance, marked the World Savings Day with the pupils of Kokomlemle Cluster of Schools popularly known as Panama 1 & 2 in the Greater Accra Region. Employees of the German Sparkassenstiftung engaged the pupils of the school to educate them on the essence of forming good savings habit. The program which was on the theme, “Inculcating the savings culture in kids”, sought to make children financially responsible as they journey into adulthood to take up national and community responsibilities. About 350 pupils benefitted from the engagement.

The main objective for celebrating this day with the selected school was to educate the pupils on how to save and invest to live a better life, this is to ensure the pupils become responsible, self-reliant, and self-sufficient.

World Savings Day in Photos

• Sharing of World Savings T-Shirts for the Kids: To commence the program, world savings day T-Shirts were shared to all the kids in the school including the teachers.

• Story reading about Savings: The employees read a story book titled “Ananse and his red piggy bank” this book thought lessons on how to work harder, how to be smart, how to save and how to invest.

• Savings Quiz Wheel: An interactive quiz was done to test the saving knowledge of the kids as well teach them more about saving.
• Savings Board Game: Savings board game that teaches financial literacy.

• Savings piggies: Each child was given a saving box to aid them save.
• Opening of Savings Account: The Jireh Microfinance Company took the details of each pupil to open a bank account for them. German Sparkassenstiftung deposited a “seed capital” into each pupil’s bank account.