In South Africa, stokvels are driving a culture of financial health. Community-based savings and credit associations, stokvels are popular among diverse communities, spanning income, geography, and gender. Stokvels are an integral part of daily life, providing a convenient and secure way to save, a safety net during emergencies, and a trusted source of credit to manage the unexpected and finance more routine life expenses, such as school fees.
An estimated one-quarter of South African adults—over 11 million people—participate in one or more of the country’s more than 800,000 stokvels, together injecting more than R50 billion (about USD 2.7 billion) a year into the economy. While people may join for financial reasons, they also enjoy the trust, mutual support, and strong sense of community that a stokvel provides.
Stokvels operate on a simple premise: members pool their resources and share the rewards. Some stokvels are formed to cover life essentials like school fees or funeral costs, others to save to buy a home, and others to access emergency credit or small business loans. Many people belong to more than one stokvel depending on their financial goals. Stokvels in South Africa have 34 members on average, and are an intrinsic part of managing financial needs through community mobilization.
Gen1 Mnotho Wabantu Saving Stokvel (“First Generation Wealth”)
Born and raised in a family of five siblings with roots in Nqamakwe, Eastern Cape, Qayisani Dlakana, is the 32-year-old founder of Gen1 Mnotho Wabantu Stokvel, a youth-focused stokvel launched in 2025. With both parents still in the Eastern Cape—her father unemployed and her mother a teacher—she understands the financial pressures burdening many South African households.
Qayisani’s vision to start the stokvel came out of personal tragedy: the death of her sister in 2024. When her sister passed away without burial cover or financial protection, for Qayisani this highlighted the widespread crisis facing many young South Africans who often lack a safety net in times of need.
Motivated by this reality, she founded the stokvel to address financial disparities among South African youth, especially those working in creative fields. Having participated in umgalelo (traditional savings groups) since her first job, she experienced firsthand how collective saving can make a tangible difference—from purchasing basic household items to building something much bigger.
Today, as a mother of a 10 year-old, she is committed to financially empowering young people. For Qayisani, the stokvel is more than a financial safety net—it is a movement to uplift, educate, and protect a generation often left behind, helping future business owners and creatives achieve their goals. The stokvel offer enterprise development and digital skills training for youth and women to help them build sustainable businesses and careers.
Noncedo Burial Society (“The One Helping Others”)
Mr. Mlilwana is one of the founding members of one of Khayelitsha’s long-standing burial clubs, established in 1989. Now a 70-year-old retiree, he continues to play a key role as a respected member of the community. Through monthly contributions from its members, the burial club provides financial relief for funeral costs and grocery needs during times of loss.
The club has more than 100 members, plus a women’s league called Imbiza Yomama that caters specifically to women. The club also has a youth league called Liyema that has been operating for more than five years, meant to attract younger people who want to help their families during times of loss with funeral costs and personal investments to achieve their financial goals. Mr. Mlilwana’s lifelong commitment has been to help families in Khayelitsha and surrounding areas prepare for life’s most difficult moments and provide dignity in death, regardless of income.
Masikhule (“Let’s Grow”) Saving Club
Noluvuyo Dyongo is a Deputy Chairperson of Masikhule (“Let’s Grow”) Saving Club based in Khayelitsha and founded in 2007. Its 142 members save for specific goals, such as building a house. Once a goal is reached, the savings are disbursed and the members commit to a new goal. In the 2024 financial year, the saving club reached R4.3 million (USD 240,000) in committed savings on behalf of 104 members. Most members contribute their fees using the Nedbank MoneyApp. Noluvuyo’s passion lies in helping women take control of their financial futures, and she is also part of women’s forums in the Khayelitsha community. There is a strong motivation for people to stick to their financial goals through collaborations with service providers such as Nedbank, which provide financial education training.
Nedbank and South Africa’s stokvels
Nedbank, one of the largest financial services providers in Africa, offers an integrated offering for stokvels, providing secure safeguarding of funds, transparent governance, and digitisation of contributions and payouts, enhancing efficiencies and saving members and founders time and reducing risks. Nedbank extends access to broader financial services and negotiates discounts that individual members or groups may not be able to secure on their own. Financial products like the Stokvel Savings Account, a no-fee group account designed to support group savings, launched in 2018. The account offers competitive interest rates between 4.25% and 6% per annum. The account can be opened with a small minimum deposit of R100 and funds are available for withdrawal on demand. As an added benefit, members have the option to sign up for funeral insurance at R25 per member per month with an R10,000 payout. Stokvels that save at least R1,000 per month from January to October are rewarded with annual discounts on groceries and school supplies for all their members.
South Africa’s stokvels and financial providers like Nedbank have found innovative ways to build a culture of financial health and resilience, bridging the informal and formal financial systems, and to forge a path to greater financial security and well-being for stokvel members and their inspiring founders. As part of her visit to South Africa, the UNSGSA discussed pathways to link stokvels to formal financial institutions, transition high volumes of informal savings to the formal system, while also providing value-added services, including medium- and long-term savings and credit products, to deepen financial health.