Breaking the cycle of poverty and empowering individuals and communities
Saving Group Members
Average annual savings
SaveAct facilitates the formation of savings groups in communities as a simple but effective tool to fight poverty, as a foundation for building sustainable livelihoods, and as a means to empower women and other vulnerable groups.
Founded in Pietermaritzburg in 2005, we have 110 000 individual members in eight provinces in South Africa and work with a network of committed partner organisations.
Our unique savings model incorporates:
Last-mile Distribution
What We Do
Savings groups and financial capability
We facilitate the establishment in rural communities of voluntary savings groups that allow people to save and grow their money. We work with partners across eight provinces to scale up the model, which includes financial education and enterprise development.
Livelihoods and enterprise development
Building on the success of savings groups, we have created a livelihoods and enterprise development (LED) programme. This aims to improve livelihood and wealth creation opportunities in a sustainable manner while empowering people to take ownership of their enterprises.
Last mile access: Zis’Ukhanyo
To achieve long-term sustainability, savings groups and enterprise groups need to be able to access goods and services at reasonable prices — often in deep rural areas where these commodities are hard to come by. The Zis’Ukhanyo programme tackles those needs.
Building ecosystems
We have a vision of using technology and access to markets to build an improved “ecosystem” with financial and other services designed around the needs of savings groups and, more generally, those who continue to be largely excluded from the dominant development path.
Latest News
From this business to that
Two years later, Gcobani Qhina is still thinking about how to thank his sister for encouraging him to join SaveAct. Mr Qhina joined his savings group in 2021, and has since started his most successful business, while expanding his already established enterprises by...
The tuck shop: A crucial start-up
Savings groups members are well known for using share-outs and loans to build their homes and start business, chief among them being tuck shops. Also known as ‘spaza shops’, these stores have proved to be quite a lucrative business venture for a lot of our members....
A couple of business owners
Khethiwe and Zakhele Sthomo from Ntabamhlophe are not only proud parents, they are also successful entrepreneurs. The family joined SaveAct in 2018, when Mrs Khethiwe Sthomo was working on her dream of becoming a full-time fashion designer. At that stage of her life,...
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