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. Between 2019 and 2022, SaveAct received the Women & Youth Sustainable Enterprises (WAYSE) project from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Jobs Fund (JF) supported. The WAYSE and JF projects ran over three years, individually, with disruption due to Covid-19 for a year. The projects were aimed at developing livelihoods and employability for 10 000 people, mainly women and youth.
The youth programme focused on Livelihood Pathways (LP), encompassed training in Life Planning, our savings methodology, and a minimum of 3 financial modules. This project also included events like the Gauteng youth expo held in December of 2022, where SaveAct focused on bringing youth together with potential employment, mentorship and further education prospects. Rethabile Poletsi says she got involved in the SaveAct youth focused trainings because she saw it as “a building tool, something to help me grow as a person.” Ntokozo Rhadebe from Soweto, a rambunctious aspiring public speaker and entrepreneur, joined the Livelihood Pathways programme in March 2022. “If it wasn’t for SaveAct offering the LP training, I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to be a young entrepreneur, like I am right now. This programme has built me in a very broad way and is also partly the reason I am now an agent at Qwili,” Ntokozo says, referring to an online app he works at, which he applied for using information received from the LP training and follow up mentorship.
Youth who attended Livelihood Pathways training garnered a plethora of work opportunities and upskilling opportunities from being a part of the trainings. All this led to the members being able to apply these teachings, advice and training to their everyday lives, and pass the knowledge on to those around them; uplifting their communities. However, some of the youth members had been with SaveAct pre-WAYSE, and were a part of savings groups, through either family members or their own membership of Savings Groups. Some, like Nothando and Thembi Shoba in Eshowe, joined because they saw how well being a part of a savings group treated their mother. Others, like Phumla Mashaba in Matatiele, followed in their older sister’s footsteps, in joining a savings group. As much as SaveAct is women-focused, the organisation also has a large male demographic, and sons who know to listen to their mothers – like Mathaba Thukela’s sons, Lihle and Maxhoba, in Mt Ayliff. “We encourage youth to start saving,” said Lihle, “and stay close to their entrepreneurial elders to get tips on how to run businesses,” added Maxhoba. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtbvJD0I6aw
Part of the WAYSE and JF projects required detailed reporting on individuals and a total of 1716 Savings Group members were sampled and reported on during the programme rollout; of which 398 were youth – 83% were young women, with 17% being young men. The ages were separated into five-year age groups. The main groups of entrepreneurs were from the age range of 31-35 years, consisting of 39%, followed by the age group of 21-25 years with 29%. The 26-30 years group was the third largest group, with 27% of entrepreneurs coming from it. 5% of youth entrepreneurs were from the age group of 15-20 years.
The aspiring youth entrepreneurs are involved in a range of enterprises ranging from farming to beauty salons, tuckshops etc. Of the youth, 58% already had existing enterprises when they first joined LP, and/or savings groups (SG). 30% were agri-entrepreneurs and 28% were general enterprise. An example of this is Mphile Mbuyazi, who joined savings having already been a seller of cosmetics. However, she expanded her enterprise and started manufacturing and selling stoep polish, after having joined SaveAct as a Saving’s Group member. She saw a need for stoep polish in her community and used a Savings Group (SG) loan to buy her first batch of stock. At first, she bought polish from a supplier, but customers constantly complained about the quality, so she started looking at other options. She found a group on Facebook where someone who was part of another SaveAct SG was teaching others how to make polish from scratch. The teacher put her in touch with a chemical supplier, and with another savings group loan, Ms. Mbuyazi bought chemicals for R2800 that would provide a year’s supply of polish. At baseline, she was making a profit of R3 314, after a year being in the project, her profit grew almost 5 times that amount.
Of both existing and new enterprises of the sample size, 141 of them were female-led, and 29 of them male-led. Within the LP project, 38% of the youth entrepreneurs started new enterprises, 23% started new farming enterprises and 15% started general enterprises. 44% of female youth entrepreneurs are involved in farming and only 10% of males are into farming. The success of female farmers and entrepreneurs has been widely documented by SaveAct, as women empowerment is not only a cornerstone of the organisation, but is also a necessity when looking at the reality of South Africa. In 2021, around 7.6 million households in South Africa were led by women*. In addition to this, Stats SA states that according to its data, young women display heightened vulnerability in the labour market when compared to young men; where, for example, in 2024, the absorption rate of young men in the formal workplace was 31,9%, outpacing young women, whose rate stood at 24,2%*.
That said, young males like Siviwe Sulani faced many challenges. A lack of opportunities pushed Mr. Sulani to decide to start an agricultural business. He had land and some capital that he knew he could source from his savings group. He focuses on growing cabbages, seedlings, and raising poultry. He received record-keeping training from SaveAct, in addition to assistance from the Department of Agriculture, like Athi Bhungalipheli.
Athi Bhungalipheli, a female farmer from the Eastern Cape, has a successful agricultural business, serviced by the two gardens in her homestead. In these gardens she plants vegetables such as cabbage and spinach, depending on the season. By virtue of being a SaveAct SG member, in addition to the abovementioned training and opportunities, she also attended Siyazisiza Trust’s agroecological training; where she learnt that good land preparation, including composting after each harvest and rotating what one plants, is good for soil fertility. She sells her vegetables in bulk to the primary school nearby, people in her community, and other communities surrounding it.
South Africa, like many countries globally, struggles with the challenge of youth unemployment; this is supported by statistics indicating a 45,5% current unemployment rate among young individuals (aged 15-34 years), in contrast to the national average of 32,9% in the first quarter of 2024*. This is why we do all we can as an organisation to empower our entrepreneurial savings group members. “I’m a person who likes to work for themselves. Jobs are scarce, but if you work for yourself, there is plenty to do”, said Ms Bhungalipheli.
The MEL team also recorded how the farming and enterprises are categorised, in the survey of the mentioned 398 youth. With regards to farming – 54% is crop farming, 25% poultry, 3% livestock, and 9% unclassified farming (those who didn’t specify the type of farming they do or did more than one of the abovementioned versions) and 8% of distinct mixed farming. The enterprises ranged from Zis’Ukhanyo resellers to taxi and delivery businesses. Of the sample size, those were broken down, and shown in graph form as follows:-
The survey was then categorised by baseline vs endline. The baseline was dependent on the day the enterprises / farms were registered for SaveAct’s recording purposes, before trainings like LP, agroecology and enterprise development were rolled out by experienced facilitators. The endline was where the businesses were approximately a year later, after training and support from SaveAct and our partners for the GIZ project, Siyazisiza Trust (ST) and SKS.
The overall gross income at baseline showed 254 youth earning between R0-R1000, but by the time they were endlined, that number had decreased to 176 youth. This means 20% of the young entrepreneurs had increased their income, within a year. The biggest increase was in those who now earned more than R5000. At baseline, the number was at 15%. However, at endline, that number more than doubled to 32% of youth entrepreneurs having an income of more that R5000 over the survey period.
The obvious separation from baseline to endline continued when MEL tracked the General Enterprise income. The largest differences again coming at the R0-R1000 and >R5000 range. At baseline, 46% of young entrepreneurs were earning a low income, however that number decreased to 36% come endline. Furthermore, at endline, 37% of them were earning more than R5000, in comparison to 21% at baseline. The second-largest difference was between those earning R2001 – R3000 at baseline being at 12%, but improved to 5% at endline, because so many of the youth SG members had increased their enterprise income.
The farmers’ incomes at baseline saw 165 people earning R0-R1000 at baseline, but was down to 108 people at endline. Throughout the WAYSE project, partnered with ST, savings groups received agri-enterprise training, and an introduction into agroecology. Not only did ST train them in the theory of agroecology, but also by having demonstration gardens to put everything learnt into practice. This is why the jump from 8% of youth at baseline earning more than R5000 to 27% at endline, was unsurprising.
With regards to curating this information by the MEL team, MEL Manager Kathy Pitout commented that “for vulnerable youth struggling with poverty and income inequality, financial inclusion and appropriate financial literacy, plus Livelihood Pathways training and mentorship can be a crucial bridge to a brighter future. By offering youth support and tools to save their hard-earned money, they can build resilience and savings to plan for the future. The results presented above clearly demonstrate that SaveAct’s methodology and training is working in the field.”
Furthermore, Mrs. Pitout added that the MEL findings demonstrate that the methodology and training that SaveAct provides is having a significant impact in people’s lives, not only in terms of increased savings but also in the agroecology and enterprise development sector. The survey done creates a balance and means of verifications to the quantitative stories that SaveAct publishes on a regular basis.
The data shows positive trends, with stable savings groups, the average age of the groups surveyed being 5 years or more, and an increasing demand for more saving groups across the project footprint areas. The average group size remains between 16/18 members, loan disbursement rates continue to grow despite the challenges of COVID-19 and loan repayment rates are good.
Establishing an agricultural or general enterprise by youth however does takes time. Results are not achieved in a hurry. They happen after intensive training and mentoring, once individuals have access to capital, which is generally provided to the business from savings group loans. As an organisation SaveAct has also realised the value of individual information to show the impact of group savings, and it will be focusing on this in the future.
* “Number of female-headed households in South Africa 2021, by province”, Cowling N 2024
* “Unemployment in South Africa: A youth perspective”, StatsSA 2024