Empowering South African youth through digital stokvel innovation
E Squared Investments has funded Stokvel Academy to pilot a youth-driven digitalisation initiative, empowering unemployed young people to modernise stokvels, strengthen financial literacy, and unlock greater community wealth.
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The programme aims to transform traditional savings groups into engines of inclusion and generational prosperity.
South Africa’s stokvel economy is valued at more than R50bn annually, with over 11 million members across 800,000 groups. Despite its size and importance, the sector remains informal and mainly cash-based, limiting its potential to contribute to long-term wealth creation.
E Squared’s funding will support a model that not only strengthens the governance and sustainability of stokvels but also creates employment opportunities for young people, one of the country’s most pressing socio-economic challenges.
Inclusive finance innovation
Pyi Maung, chief investment officer of E Squared Investments, said the decision reflects the organisation’s commitment to driving inclusive growth through entrepreneurial solutions.
“The Stokvel Agent Accelerator will demonstrate how experimentation can uncover new possibilities for inclusive finance and social innovation.
"By equipping young people to participate in and modernise existing community networks, it shows how trust, technology and local knowledge can come together to drive meaningful economic participation.
"This approach offers a glimpse into how development can expand in scale while remaining rooted in the everyday realities of South Africans.”
Youth-driven digitisation
The 18-month pilot will begin in Soweto and the Vaal region, recruiting and training 25 youth as financial agents who will digitise stokvel operations, onboard groups onto trusted digital platforms, and host financial education workshops.
The initiative is expected to digitise more than 3,400 stokvels, benefitting close to 28,000 members, and to reach a further 800 people through community financial education.
Founded in 2017 by social entrepreneur Busisiwe Skenjana, Stokvel Academy has already supported more than 5,000 stokvel members through workshops, research and training programmes. Its mission is to reposition stokvels as vehicles for generational wealth creation and community upliftment.
Skenjana welcomed E Squared’s support as a pivotal milestone; “This funding gives us the platform to demonstrate that stokvels can be professionalised and digitised in a way that creates lasting impact.
"By training youth agents, we are not only addressing unemployment but also equipping stokvels to grow stronger and more resilient. With E Squared’s backing, we can show the true potential of community finance in building South Africa’s economic future.”
Community-driven innovation
Kurhula Baloyi, co-founder and chief executive officer of Sum1 Investments, added, “This initiative brings together the way stokvels already save — grounded in trust, discipline, and community — with technology designed to work the way stokvels work, where they are. It’s a model that strengthens stokvel members while opening new pathways into financial services for unemployed youth.
"At Sum1, we believe that when technology is built around people and their communities, it doesn’t just include them — it uplifts them.”
South Africa’s stokvel economy is one of the country’s most dynamic yet under-recognised financial systems, built on culture, collaboration, and community capital. When the way stokvels save and support each other connects with youth entrepreneurship, it turns shared effort into inclusive economic opportunity created in our communities.
“Initiatives like the Stokvel Agent Acceleration Program show what’s possible when progress begins in the community, not outside it, and builds on what stokvel communities are already doing,” added Baloyi.