Promoting financial literacy and inclusion in South Africa
GIG CFI, a not-for-profit cooperative financial institution leveraged Mambu’s cloud-native platform to provide modern banking services to underserved communities in South Africa, supporting financial literacy and fostering economic inclusion.
About the customer
GIG CFI
GIG CFI (General Inheritance Group Co-Operative Financial Institution), supported by GIG Trust is a not-for-profit cooperative financial institution based in Johannesburg, South Africa, providing modern banking services to underserved communities. Established in 2010, the cooperative currently serves 1,000 members, offering products like interest-free loans, savings accounts with 6 to 24 month fixed depost terms and peer-to-peer transactions.
In 2021, GIG CFI’s outstanding work was recognised as the best performing CFI (Cooperative financial institution) in South Africa.
The challenge
Overcoming legacy and low market penetration
Financial cooperatives in South Africa, including GIG CFI, have struggled with outdated banking systems, manual accounting, and regulatory challenges, contributing to the sector’s minimal market share of just 0.06%. South Africa faces high poverty and inequality, with 34.5% unemployment, which further limits the ability of cooperatives to serve the unbanked and grow sustainably.
The lack of modern infrastructure has hindered scalability, making it difficult for cooperatives like GIG CFI to operate efficiently. To address these issues, GIG CFI needed to replace its legacy system with a flexible, cloud-native platform to grow sustainably and meet the needs of its members.
The solution
A future-ready core banking platform
GIG CFI migrated its operations to the cloud in 2013 and became one of the earliest adopters of Mambu in the region. The CFI selected Mambu's composable banking platform because it offered flexibility and is easily configurable. The accessibility of the Mambu platform also played a key role in the selection process.
Leveraging Mambu's lending engine, GIG CFI rolled out Interest-free loans with share-based savings as collateral and P2P loans structured with one or multiple P2P investments. By building on Mambu’s cloud banking platform, GIG CFI can easily modify existing lending products and add new ones quickly to cater to the needs of their members.
The impact
Driving financial inclusion and economic growth
Today, the cooperative serves over 1,000 members and thanks to Mambu is able to provide modern banking services at fair rates. Both Mambu and GIG CFI have gained considerable attention by local and national authorities as well as regulators as they continue to serve as reference models as to how cooperative banking can address financial inclusion at different levels:
- Banking the underbanked
- Behavioural banking & fostering savings culture
- Resolving dept & becoming more energy resilient
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