In South Africa, borrowing money has traditionally been the primary way to build a good credit score. But a startup called Pokkit Score (Pokkit), founded in 2023, is providing a new way. Instead of relying on debt, Pokkit helps people improve their credit scores using their savings. This approach seeks to address the pressing financial inclusion challenge in a society with widespread income inequality and limited access to credit.
In South Africa’s mainstream banking, building a good credit score requires borrowing money, often at very high interest rates. This approach does not work well for millions of low-income earners in a country where 63% of people live below the upper-middle-income poverty line as stated by the World Bank.
South Africa’s banking sector is dominated by five major banks, which together hold 77% of the market. Despite this, about 7 million South Africans lack adequate access to credit, while 21 million have no credit access whatsoever, according to the TransUnion report. This means millions of South Africans do not have a credit score – ratings that show how likely they are to repay loans. This limits access to essential loans for homes, vehicles, or even education.
“We believe that it is wrong that people first need to incur debt to get a credit score,” says Pokkit’s CEO, Johan Koornhof. “By enabling savings to serve as a pathway to credit, unlike traditional methods, this system encourages financial discipline and avoids the potential pitfalls of high-interest debt.”
Instead of incurring debt, Pokkit allows customers to purchase savings vouchers, ranging between $5.55 and $220.60, which are redeemable after a set period. These contributions are securely invested in the Allan Gray Money Market Fund (MMF) and customers receive 100% of the interest earned, currently at 8.16% per annum. Pokkit shares customers’ savings behavior with credit bureaus, allowing them to establish or improve credit scores.
With Pokkit, if a customer saves $220.60 every month for 24 months at the current Allan Gray MMF interest rate of 8.16% per annum (as of March 14, 2025), they would have saved about $5292.61 and earned $474.23 in interest bringing the total value at the end of 24 months to $5 766.84.
Customers also benefit from low monthly fees and a money-back guarantee if no improvement in their score is observed within a year
“Monthly fees range between $0.25 and $0.41 and if your credit score does not improve within 12 months (assuming all else remains constant), we will refund all fees. While early redemptions incur higher fees, customers can access their savings after three months for a flat fee of $0.50,” notes Koornhof..
Pokkit measures its success through the tangible financial empowerment of its users.
“The best number is that 100% of customers without credit scores get one within two to five months; 80% of customers with low credit scores start improving within 5 months of regular payments,” says Koornhof..
Beyond addressing South Africa’s financial inclusion gaps, Pokkit has set its sights on expansion across the African continent, where credit scoring systems often fail to reflect the true financial behavior of consumers and credit bureaus operate dismally. .
Koornhof notes that one of the challenges Pokkit faced was gaining the trust of individuals without access to credit. The company has overcome this challenge by reliable reporting and efficient management of payments and payouts.
Technology plays a crucial role in Pokkit’s operations. “Our entire system is housed on AWS powering a sophisticated dashboard that handles registration, transactions and reconciliations entirely online with savings contributions directly linked to credit score updates,” says Koornhof.
Pokkit collects personal data voluntarily for financial services, credit assessments, and personalised offers. Koornhof notes that all data is protected through secure storage, incorporating encryption and strict access controls, while ensuring compliance POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act) and other relevant laws.
In the long term, Pokkit envisions becoming a “leading data aggregator, that also reports alternative data – payments that are not being reported currently,” says Koornhof.
