A firm in Zimbabwe called Victory Savings Club has innovatively incorporated the use of mobile technology in a pioneering effort aimed at promoting the culture of saving, wealth creation and empowerment among the country’s citizens.
The app dubbed VictoryTxT, which has been running in beta mode for about a year, formally adopted a constitution and was launched on May 18, 2012.
VictoryTxT allows registered users, or members, to send action-packed and motivational text messages and is designed to inspire them to save their moneys. The messages are personalised and address each user’s personal goals at specific times each day.
According to a 2011 FinScope Consumer survey, Zimbabwe has more that 40 percent of its population unbanked and a more than 12 percent in rural areas without access to banks therefore an SMS service is a great leap to encourage savings for its more than 12 million population with around 7.5 million mobile phones.
When a new member is recruited in a member’s downline, an SMS is sent to inform the member on the new membership, the commission earned and the account balance.
The system thereafter sends each member reminders on each preset goal as a means of assisting the member to act and review on them.
The app uses a network marketing formula, in which club members earn incomes whenever they recruit a new member.
The club’s business development officer Shingie Ndiya said they realised that using mobile phones is a powerful and effective way of achieving their goal of promoting financial discipline among members.
Ndiya explained the company developed SMS Web server using VBscript and an Access database, and an international based Web server for redundancy.
The idea behind VictoryTxT, Ndiya noted, is to inspire and urge members to diligently pursue their goals.
With a goal of attaining a user base of up to 10,000 in the short to medium term period, the club’s other business objectives include producing empowered motivated and inspired members who contribute to the wealth of their families and country as well as promoting financial discipline.
It also aims to impart relevant entrepreneurial skills to its registered members to enable them to run their own businesses and create wealth.
To access the services of the Victory Savings Club, a member has to be a paid-up VictoryTxT member, this means paying a monthly US$5 subscription fee.
Other than promoting disciplined saving habit, other benefits also include a borrowing facility of up to US$2,000 without security and amounts above this require security. Each member contributes US$100 per month.
Monthly subscriptions to the VictoryTxT platform are charged at US$5 purchasable as scratchcard.
