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{
    "id": 389559,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/389559/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 232,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Prof.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "Fund. This is very good. We cannot hope that all the monies that people can borrow and start business with will come from the Exchequer. Saving must be the basis of economic growth. Adequate savings will definitely spur economic growth by encouraging and facilitating entrepreneurs to access funds and start businesses, which will help to reduce unemployment in our country. Again, we need the savings so that our youth and women can have a place from which to borrow so that they can get into the money economy as they wish to do. I am not an economist but I believe that if there are adequate savings in the country, from which people can borrow, the bank interest rates will go down. Maybe, hon. Langat will take me through some lessons because I have never understood why the bank interests in this country are so high. I read that in some countries, when the interest rates get to 6 per cent, it becomes a national issue, and it is discussed. In this country, we are talking of bank interest rates of between 15 and 20 per cent. Why is it so? At the same time, we know that some of the international banks actually have made their biggest profits from countries like ours. I am, therefore, driven to believe that we are being exploited. The only way to respond to that exploitation is to have our own savings locally. Countries like Japan have grown economically because people there have great saving habits. In fact, if you read the history of their growth, you will appreciate that they started with individual savings. The marry-go-round or table banking that Kenyan women indulge themselves in shows that they would wish to have local savings that they can use to do the businesses they would like to get involved in. What people really need are mechanisms that will ensure that however little your saving is, you have a safe place where you can put it. Somebody with a small saving suffers much greater pain when it is lost than huge multinationals because the later have ways of edging out such losses. Therefore, I support the Bill because it provides for such mechanisms. People will be sure that they will get the little monies they will be saving when they need it and that should there be a problem, they will be compensated promptly. Therefore, we cannot afford not to have a mechanism like that proposed in this Bill. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would also like to support this Bill because in a country like ours, where corruption is a big problem, we need safety mechanisms. As I always say, corruption is an area we need to look into. Even if we have anti-corruption laws and mechanisms like the one proposed in this Bill, they will still not work if the ethos in the country is that of corruption. Laws are made by man. If we do not have the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}