Turning stokvels into businesses
Stokvels are made up of male (42.6%) and female (57.4%) membership, with almost 80% of these between the ages of 25 and 49. Groups such as burial societies may have 50 members, while investment and grocery groups tend to have between 10 and 20 members.
"Having seen these studies, I realised that South Africans have the ability to gather and accumulate wealth with possibilities of creating jobs to eradicate poverty and empower each other through a unit and defined communities without having to rely on the government and banks for grants and funding," said Caskey Ndaba, CEO of Decorum, a financial services business that is currently focusing on providing risk management solutions to protects customers' wealth and assets when life event based eventualities happen.
Decorum has developed a technology driven program, called eStokvel, that assists stokvels to structure and formalise themselves into investment clubs with viable business entities that grow beyond what a stokvel is generally known for.
This is a program that will see the members and the stokvel itself tapping into mainstream business and markets through formalised business models, which enables them to run succesful businesses to create tangible business opportunities for start-ups and SMEs.