According to the latest MasterCard Worldwide Survey in Consumer Purchasing Priorities – Money Management, Kenyans continue to understand the importance of saving their money, with 76 percent of the respondents committing to increase their savings in the following six months.

Compared to previous findings, the latest findings represent a 2 percent increase on 74 percent of respondents who had similarly committed to increasing their savings in 2011.

The impact of global economic events on the Kenyan market was cited by 79 percent of respondents as the chief reason for wanting to regularly save. They also felt that they needed to prepare for an unforeseen emergency expenditure.

93 percent of the respondents believed that they should regularly save a portion of their monthly income. The savings allocations though varied with 27 percent saving one tenth or less. Four in 10 respondents save between 11 to 30 percent and 22 percent save more than one third of their salaries.

MasterCard Wordlwide, East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, Vice President and Market Manager,  Charlton Goredema, said, “It is clear that Kenyans understand the importance of setting a portion of their monthly income aside…. In fact, it is one of the most important and necessary actions that any Kenyan can take to ensure their financial security.”

Goredema added that investing, buying or upgrading a property and retirement planning were the most popular reasons for saving with a large percentage of Kenyans saving for more than one purpose.

He also noted that although the survey found that a large number of Kenyans intended saving more, it also revealed that 60 percent of Kenyans struggle to set money aside for large purchases. This, he believes, points to various external factor that sometimes hamper consumers from actually reaching their savings targets.

Despite many Kenyans understanding the importance of planning and savings for retirement, plus were setting money aside for that purpose, the survey revealed that only 42 percent of the respondents had calculated the total amount that they would need to retire with in order to maintain their lifestyle when the time comes for them to stop working.

Several positive survey results highlighted the respondents’ strong awareness of the importance to managing their finances, including:

• 88% had the ability and understanding to budget for their day to day finances;
• 88% regularly monitored the progress of their investments;
• 85% compared the features of competing financial products before making a purchase choice

“Even though the survey shows that Kenyans lag with planning for their retirement, it revealed that they understand the importance of financial planning, budgeting, saving, comparing and monitoring developments in the financial environment, and more importantly, they are taking steps to include these activities in their daily lives,” said Goredema.

The survey also revealed that 58 percent of Kenayns are currently using mobile applications to manage their money, with another 16 percent saying that while they are not using a mobile application at the moment, they are considering it.

“Kenyans’ frequent use of mobile payments solutions already in use in the market clearly shows their positive response to secure, convenient cashless methods of payment……… Furthermore, their commitment to setting money aside in savings to prepare for uncertain economic times, and for retirement, shows that they are aligned with the government’s Vision 2030 objectives that will see Kenya evolve to overcome obstacles of the past, and achieve the benefits of a middle income economy by 2030.” Says Goredema.

The latest survey was conducted in the period between 24 April and 10 June 2012, and involved 11,376 respondents aged between 18 to 64 years. The survey was conducted across 25 markets in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions. On the African continent, the survey was conducted in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.