ABOUT US

Coltnet Enterprise Limited is a Zambian owned entity that was incorporated on 14^TH September 2010. The Company responsible for the development of a Digital Financial Services (DFS) solution APP for Savings and Credit Groups also known as Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), Village Banks (VBs) or Savings Groups SGs) for use in Zambia and other countries. The App is called Community Saving Fund (CSF). It will enable the Savings Groups to transact digitally using their mobile phones thereby leading to more efficient and secure operations than the manual systems prevalent in Zambia at present.

 

With the App, group savings and contributions can be accessed any time for easy planning, predictions on saving monthly, quarterly and yearly. Whether the community savings group is small, medium or large, CSF has the accounting software to enable the group operate their saving needs with ease at a fixed cost. This eliminates manual record keeping and reduces the burden of the group administrator managing financial records on behalf of the group.

BACKGROUND

For the majority of Village Savings Groups in Zambia, transacting and accounting procedures and practices are mostly manually done, time consuming, cumbersome and counterproductive as they expose members’ cash and records to risk of loss. The processes are inefficient as they involve the recording of all transactions manually, a tedious process which is also prone to numerous recording and calculation errors. Loss of Records is an ever-present risk which poses danger as the entire Savings Group Database could be lost without any possibility of recovery and this can cripple operations of the Savings Group.

In Zambia as in most developing countries, Village banking/savings groups are small savings and lending schemes organized outside the formal financial sector. As the term "village" implies, membership is usually among people who are familiar with each other and share certain commonalities through their family, friends, and community.

The groups are usually formed by the underprivileged in society to offer sustainable micro-finance services such as micro savings and micro credit among others in places with no access to prescribed financial services. They are self-managed initiatives and normally do not receive any external capital. They provide members with a safe place to save their monies and acquire small loans from among themselves.

They promote a culture of saving among group members and enables group members to grow their money. Group members are able to utilize money obtained from their village banking group to engage in different types of business ventures which contribute to growth of their money.

OUR VALUE PROPOSITION

Community Saving Fund (CSF) will automate all the manual processes such as accounting, loan requests and disbursements currently undertaken manually by the Savings and Credit Groups including Village banking Groups enabling members to carry out transaction using a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet 24/7

 

Through the development of this user-friendly App, the entire village banking concept will be digitalized by this App which will address all the processes and procedures involved in village banking enabling members and administrators to transact digitally, remotely and seamlessly from the phones at any time.

 

It will eliminate the need to handle cash, use of cash boxes to store cash as well as the need for lengthy meetings held just for purposes of undertaking routine transactions such as receiving applications for memberships/loans etc., making cash deposits, receiving loan repayments, maintaining paper records and other transactions.

 

The App has been developed with ease of use as a major hall mark enabling people with varying literacy levels to use it with ease.

 

Village Banking Groups normally have a challenge with reconciliation and tracking transactions on in real time as they require the administrator to manually update the records of transactions. Undertaking reconciliations is also currently a tedious process. The App will enable groups to operate more efficiently and effectively as their records will be updated automatically in real time.

 

Loan requests and disbursements can be made at any time without waiting for specific dates as the details will be available on the dash board.

 

This will enable groups to grow their funds exponentially thereby maximizing on their return on investments. The App will guarantee transparency as members will access information and accurate statements at any time from the comfort of their homes freeing their time to more productive pursuits leading to greater productivity at individual level overall. This Innovation will immediately impact hundreds of thousands of members throughout Zambia with potential for growth into millions with increased adoption over time given the superior benefits vis a vis manual system.