Stokvels before, during and after Covid-19

The pandemic has changed everything but don’t let it stop your stokvel

Before the world was rocked by Covid-19 and we went under a national lockdown, stokvels were used to regular face-to-face meetings. Joining a stokvel before lockdown meant being included in a social aspect of saving and oftentimes, you would find new members joining by invitation or referral from others members only. The process of a traditional stokvel before lockdown might have looked something like:

Joining a stokvel before Covid-19 without Stokfella

Then along came Covid-19 and it has changed the way we are allowed to work and socialise. With social distancing measures in place and laws that prohibit public gatherings, stokvels have been forced to adapt the way they manage meetings and communication. Those traditional stokvels who have been resistant to change have felt the full impact of the lockdown and have ended up looking something like:

Joining a stokvel during Covid-19 without Stokfella

However, many forward-thinking stokvels who were already using StokFella have felt minimum impact. StokFella has always made social distance possible even before the pandemic. These stokvels with StokFella before lockdown might have looked something like:

Joining a stokvel before Covid-19 with Stokfella

Now maximising their forward thinking, these stokvels have further turned to technology as the solution and are using options such as Whatsapp and Zoom to host virtual meetings and add new members by using digital communication.

The process for these stokvels at the moment during lockdown might look something like:

Joining a stokvel during Covid-19 with Stokfella

While not everyone is tech-savvy and some of us may feel awkward using it for the first time, tech use is growing rapidly as we are all being forced to adapt to this strange new world we find ourselves in, where even a simple handshake or hug is now considered a health risk.

We know it cannot last forever, but in the meantime, those who are not afraid to try new things are forging ahead and positioning themselves to grow their wealth while they look forward to a brighter future by putting funds into stokvels that support property investment, agriculture and even township franchises. If this is something you would like to do, reach out to us and we will help you to get started. Don’t forget that you can take advantage of other benefits of transacting digitally on a platform such as StokFella, where your stokvel can qualify for loans up to R20 000 with a Nala Club Account and your stokvel earns income from your loan. It doesn’t make sense to borrow money from a bank when you can borrow it from your own “bank” (your stokvel). What about after Covid-19, you ask? When will things go back to “normal”? When we think about how things might look for stokvels after lockdown, there are sure to still be a few differences, compared with before lockdown. It is likely to take months before a vaccine is found and public gatherings are likely to be banned for some time still to come. Even when South Africa progresses to level 2 and 1, it might be that we still need to limit gatherings to no more than 10 people and for some stokvels this will be a challenge. We envision that after lockdown, stokvels might experience a mixture of traditional face-toface interaction with digital interaction. Expect to see more digital meetings and more digital communication than before with the occasional face-to-face get-together taking place where we might still be required to wear masks and practice strict sanitation and hygiene. While this is a challenging time for us all, it is also a time of opportunity for those willing to embrace the changes and grow through it. StokFella is here to help.

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