Decentralized Stokvels
For generations, stokvels (also known as chamas, tandas, partnerhand, cundinas, hui and contributions) have played a significant role in community financing across Africa, where members are able to contribute fixed sums of money on a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis for mutual financial goals and support. Stokvels are essentially a form of Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA), and our Decentralised Stokvels applies innovative approach on this traditional form of community-based financing evolves this concept in four ways. Firstly, by operating under the principals of a DAO, secondly tokenising membership, thirdly exclusively financing agricultural projects in exchange for royalties (a share of the profits) and finally, no ongoing commitment beyond the minimum contribution. Members can join any number of six stokvels using $AGRII, each stokvel is focused on a different aspect of agricultural support and development:
Farming Stokvel: Provides access to quality inputs such as seeds and fertilisers as well as machinery and extension services.
Off Taker Stokvel: Aggregates crops from smallholder farmers, performing cleaning, grading and sometimes processes the crop before reselling to the market.
Women Agribusiness Stokvel: Provides access to patient capital to enable women working across the agricultural value chain to start and grow their businesses.
Energy & Infrastructure Stokvel: Providing rural farming communities with access to micro-processing hubs powered by renewable energy.
AgTech Stokvel: Provides access to patient capital for agricultural technology companies utilising agriiProtocol to launch and grow their businesses.
Hemp & Cannabis Stokvel: Provides access to capital to agribusinesses servicing the hemp and cannabis value chain.
Each stokvel operates with autonomy, managed by its members who vote on what projects to finance and how royalties received from these projects are distributed to the stokvel members. Voting weight for project funding is based on the number of units held by each member. The royalty distribution votes are more democratic, where each member gets a single vote irrespective of the number of units held, this ensures the direction the stokvel is determined collectively, without influence from larger contributors. Annually, members vote on the proportion of royalties to be drawn down – 25%, 50%, 75%. Members receive their share of the royalties in proportion to the units held. The reason behind doing this is to assist members with wealth creation by re-contributing a portion of their royalties. Members still have the option to exit the stokvel with their initial contribution and the royalties earned for that period, however they forfeit any bonus pay outs and additional voting powers earned from not exiting the stokvel.
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