From Savings Pot to Agricultural Capital: Tracing the Loan-Use Pathways of CGSL Members in Rural South Sudan

This article examines how Community Group Saving and Lending (CGSL) mechanisms convert small household savings into agricultural capital in rural South Sudan. Rather than treating CGSLs only as rotating savings associations, the paper traces the sequence through which members deposit small sums, collectively protect the savings pot, access group-based loans, and apply credit to agricultural inputs, labour, livestock, technology and market-oriented production. The analysis draws from a mixed-method thesis conducted in Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei and Lakes States between 2022 and 2025. Quantitative evidence came from 81 valid questionnaire responses out of a target sample of 85, while qualitative evidence came from 17 interviews. The results show that the strongest elements of the pathway were the recognition of rural finance as a difference-making resource, the importance of savings for poverty reduction, the use of CGSLs as member-managed entities and the perception that working capital scarcity constrains agricultural investment. Logistic regression indicated that access to CGSL credit significantly increased the likelihood of investing in modern agricultural technologies (β = 1.9459, p = 0.026), while chi-square testing showed significant associations between CGSL participation and market orientation, technology-related productivity and credit access (χ² = 15.92, p = 0.0001). The paper argues that CGSL loans act as a bridge between subsistence survival and productive agricultural investment, but that the bridge remains short where groups lack long-term capital, formal linkages and advanced financial literacy. The study contributes a loan-use pathway framework for analysing community finance in post-conflict rural economies.