Members can check their own position
A member’s standing comes from the ledger rather than from asking the treasurer, which removes both the delay and the dependency.
All projects 
Group investment
Chama Yetu
Group savings that reconcile themselves
Chama Yetu tracks contributions, payouts and member statements for investment groups, with messaging over the SMS and USSD rails members actually use.
- Domain
- Group investment
- Scope
- Contributions & payouts
- Status
- In production
- Market
- Kenya
The problem
A chama runs on trust and a treasurer’s notebook. Contributions arrive by mobile money against a shared record that one person maintains, members find out where they stand by asking, and disputes are resolved by scrolling back through transaction messages. The bookkeeping burden falls on a volunteer, and the group’s confidence in its own numbers depends entirely on that person’s diligence.
- 01 Contributions tracked manually against payments arriving on a phone
- 02 Member position knowable only by asking the treasurer
- 03 Disputes settled by scrolling back through payment messages
- 04 Record-keeping continuity dependent on one volunteer
What we built
A shared ledger for the group. Contributions are recorded against the member who made them, statements are generated rather than compiled, and members are reached over the channels they already use — which in this market means SMS and USSD, not only a smartphone app.
- 01 Contribution tracking recorded against individual members
- 02 Payout and distribution handling against the group record
- 03 Member statements generated from the ledger
- 04 Contribution reminders and confirmations over SMS and USSD
- 05 Delivery visibility on messages sent to members
The result
What the business can do that it could not before.
Disputes resolve against a record
Contributions are attributed as they are recorded, so a disagreement is settled by reading the ledger rather than re-reading payment messages.
The group works without a smartphone
SMS and USSD reach members on the handsets they actually carry, rather than limiting participation to those with a data plan.
Continuity survives a change of treasurer
The record belongs to the group rather than to whoever is currently keeping the book.
Group ledgerContribution trackingStatementsSMS & USSD messaging
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