ABSTRACT
The chapter aims to investigate whether the stokvel concept, resting on indigenous, informal community values, could potentially be transposed to the United Kingdom to provide vulnerable consumers with self-upliftment through increased savings and access to credit. The specific focus is on ‘stokvels’ – the savings and credit clubs of South Africa’s informal economy as a response to financial exclusion. Stokvels can also help finance cultural expenses such as a funeral or an initiation ceremony for a male adolescent, provide a pool of resources to improve the quality of Christmas celebrations, or fund a trip to an ancestral homeland in a faraway part of the country. Stokvels perform a function which would normally be provided by the banks as defined in the 1990 Banks Act, since stokvels arguably accept ‘deposits’ as defined in that Act. At an organisational level, formalisation policy in South Africa makes it possible for stokvels to register as formal financial associations of various types.
