The new face of stokvels

TECH-SAVVY NETWORKS: HOW OLD-SCHOOL TRADITIONS MEET NEW-SCHOOL THINKING

- Ina Opperman

As far as you can remember, people have been talking about stokvels, but the stokvels of today are not the stokvels our grannies and their forebears used to join.

A stokvel is a savings scheme formed by a group of people who come together to pool their financial resources to save for a common financial goal.

Most stokvels operate on a rotational basis, where members of the scheme agree to make a fixed, regular contribution on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis. Each member takes a turn to receive the entire pot of collected funds.

While stokvels have been a long-standing tradition in South Africa, they were only formalized during the late 1980s.