Information flow through the My Savings Companion App

FACT Zimbabwe though The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and United States Agency for International Development in Zimbabwe (USAID Zimbabwe) supported Children Tariro Program being implemented in Manicaland and Masvingo provinces has adopted an innovative and digitalized savings product to provide an accurate record for all financial transactions and loan tracking for the benefit of Income Savings and Lending groups.

The My Savings Companion (MSC) application is an Android powered digital ledger that provides confidence to a group member, including the calculation of the individual share-out for savings groups through personalized Short Message Service (SMS). The solution introduces objective based savings an improvement from the savings strategy that the group used in the past.

The system produces trends and patterns necessary for decision making on user friendly dashboards, makes it possible for implementing partners to have total control of their database including customized individual information requirements, monitoring of staff and cadres; minimizes physical interaction and helps manage teams during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Registration of new groups is currently underway with the process requiring mobile data for synching of information to the main server. Network coverage in some parts of the districts where the Children Tariro Program is being implemented has posed as a challenge resulting in some group members having to travel long distances to get better connectivity.

Since January 2022 to date, FACT Zimbabwe has supported 4332 beneficiaries constituting 532 groups to utilize the MSC application in Makoni, Mutasa, Mutare, Chipinge, Buhera and Gutu districts with training, mobile devices and mobile data bundles.