Chama-Aid

App Description

Chama-Aid is a mobile application that seeks to provide record keeping for informal savings groups, also known as chamas, in Kenya.
These groups are mostly made up of women, who meet after a certain period of time, for example:a week, two weeks or a month and give a certain amount of money.
The groups have a treasurer who keeps the financial records.
Some have a fixed amount of money they give per meeting, while for others the amount is flexible. Chama-Aid will provide transparent financial management for this user group.

Duration:	2 weeks
Role:	Designer
Toolkit:	Figma and Whimsical
Team:	Easter Kerubo - UX Designer

This was a personal project.

Background Information

In Kenya, we have informal savings groups known as ‘chamas’- a Swahili word that means a group. They refer to informal groups where its members contribute a certain amount of money periodically. The sum total is available to the members. This tradition can be traced back to rural women who needed to purchase household goods. As they did not have the money for that, they would each contribute money per month that would be allocated to one person. Sooner or later their turn to get a lump sum would arrive. According to FinAccess, 41% of adults in Kenya use chamas. These groups are a huge part of Kenya’s economic background.
In my family, both my parents belong to chamas. My mom has one with church members, another with her sisters, and another with her workmates. In one chama, every monthly contribution by each member is given to one person . Each member has their turn where they receive a certain amount.

Problem Statement

I represented my problem domain in a series of need statements

• Treasurer needs to disburse funds.
• Treasurer needs to keep track of transactions.
• Members of a chama need to see the group transactions.
• Treasurer needs to separate their personal and chama Mobile money

Why does this problem occur?

It was important to question why the problem occurs so that it could be tackled.

Money is sent to the treasurer via M-pesa. M-pesa is a mobile money solution that is prevalent in Kenya. With M-pesa the money is stored in the same ‘wallet’. Therefore, there is no separation of personal and non-personal funds. The treasurer has to note the money that is received on a book. When disbursing funds, the treasurer has to also note the transaction fees separately as they redistribute their money.
As humans are to err, errors occur.

Goals of the project

Tackling the problem would mean a system with the following goals.

• • Enable users to create a savings group, also known as a chama.
• • Enable members to send money to the savings group
• • Enable members to view the total amount collected
• • Enable treasurers to redistribute collected funds

Why a mobile app?

Internet and mobile phone use are at over 80 percent penetration in Kenya and would enable us to target as wide a demographic as possible