Umnotho Creating a Buzz Beyond Borders.

By Bliss Yeni

September 02, 2025

When a delegation from SACCO (Savings and Credit Cooperative) in Kenya visited Umnotho Community, the message was clear: Umnotho’s innovative cooperative model is gaining traction far beyond South Africa’s borders.

The visit was a moment to reflect on how communities across Africa are finding shared solutions for common challenges

Kenya has long been recognised as one of Africa’s leaders in the cooperative movement. Its SACCOs have driven financial inclusion by providing small-scale farmers, teachers, and entrepreneurs access to credit and savings facilities. For many, these cooperatives have been the backbone of social and economic transformation.

Similarly, Umnotho was born out of a simple but powerful idea that communities can solve their own challenges when they pool their resources, skills, and dreams. What began as a desire to build affordable, functional, and dignified homes has grown into a fully integrated cooperative ecosystem, designed to address broader economic realities.

The Golden Thread

The story of Umnotho began with a pressing need for homes. Families wanted to build safe houses without being trapped in expensive high-interest bank loans. This desire sparked a movement. The community began saving together, collecting small amounts to make the dream of homeownership possible.

However, they soon realised that building homes required more than just savings. They needed land ownership, the foundation for real economic freedom. This understanding gave rise to the vision of a one-stop cooperative model where every service is connected, each one feeding into the next, like threads woven into a strong fabric.

To safeguard their savings and grow their collective wealth, they created a platform where members could save and invest with confidence, knowing that their money would circulate within the community to generate more opportunities. One of its most popular products, the Housing Stokvel, helps families save toward buying a stand and eventually building their dream home.

The vision didn’t stop there. Through its social development programs, Umnotho invests in skills that will keep the model sustainable for generations to come. Young people are trained in practical skills like brickmaking through its brick making plant. These trained youth will later join construction teams to build the very houses their families dreamed of, creating a cycle of empowerment and ownership.

Since no community thrives without food security, Umnotho launched the Ikamva Consumer Cooperative. This initiative allows families to buy affordable groceries while pooling profits to reinvest in local projects. The goal is to eventually establish a community-owned grocery store. This integrated approach ensures that the community is not just a participant in its economic growth but also a key stakeholder and primary beneficiary.

As the SACCO delegation returned to Kenya, the sense of possibility lingered. Across borders, languages, and cultures, a shared understanding emerged; that Africa’s strength lies in its people working together to shape their own futures.