Borrow Wisely! Financial Education Campaign

What is Borrow Wisely! Campaign?

The Borrow Wisely! promotes global client protection standards. This annual international campaign is led by the MFC and its partners. We work with any institution that is a responsible lender (complying with current global standards of client protection) working in the Europe and Central Asian region.

What is our goal?

We aim to educate large numbers of clients about how to borrow money safely, harnessing the positive power of loans and avoiding the pitfalls of too much debt.

Borrowers need understand that they have the power to borrow wisely is in their hands, and that they can avoid the risks of over-indebtedness by asking themselves key questions to get to grips with how much they can safely borrow.

Why MFIs should participate?

As an industry, our future depends on our ability to lend responsibly, and to protect against client over-indebtedness in line with international standards. Responsible lending is good for clients and good for the reputation of the industry as a whole. The campaign is an excellent opportunity to re-confirm institution customer care orientation and commitment to responsible finance.

What will we do?BWC_poster

The campaign targets clients and potential clients of microfinance institutions. Campaign partners’ field staff will use posters, leaflets brochures and videos to communicate the importance of borrowing wisely. We developed a simple “pre-loan” checklist of questions that clients should ask themselves before taking out a loan, to ensure that only borrow safe and responsible levels of debt. These questions are:

    • How much can I afford to borrow?
    • Do I know how much I will pay?
    • Do I fully understand the contract?
    • What should I do if I am not satisfied?
    • How to control debt?

What are Borrow Wisely! Campaign 2020 results?

Final evaluation of the 2020 BWC edition results are very impressive yet inspiring:

  • 23 partners of the Campaign
  • across 154countries in Europe and Central Asia
  • The figures are terrific: overall BWC partners reached 3 030 286 users through online channels of communication, and despite the difficult epidemic situation, they organized on-site events (taking care of all of the health and security measures) which united almost 8100 attendees. Each year the results are more and more impressive (2019 – 1 991 953 people reached online)

Read more on the 2020 edition here 

The campaign is designed to help people think about borrowing in a more responsible way, and results reveal that we met our aim! Respondents had this to say:

Farm Credit is not just a lender, but also our adviser.

We are always happy to have their valuable advice!

A client of Farm Credit, Armenia

I learned a lot of interesting things about smart borrowing,

loans and how can I endanger my finances by borrowing.

A client of Sunrise, Bosnia and Herzegovina

We received useful information which will definitely apply.

Thank you for your time!

A client of MicroInvest,  Moldova

Evaluation results from 2017 show that the message is getting through:

79% respondents agreed the campaign was useful for them

61% respondents were able to state at least 1 advice (out of 5 key advices) of wise borrowing after the campaign

91% of respondents declared that they would read the campaign materials later on

 

Read the complete Evaluation Report of Borrow Wisely! Campaign in 2017.

Join Borrow Wisely! Campaign 2021

Want to promote international client protection standards and increase social performance of your organization? Join the seventh edition of Borrow Wisely! Campaign in 2021! Read more

Participation is free for MFC Members. Organizations, not affiliated with MFC can join the campaign on commercial basis.

Interested in getting involved? Please contact us.

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