Social grant intervention in running for top honour

At the beginning, the goal was simple: create an alternative to loan sharks. So begins the story of e-Khadi, a community-driven credit and stokvel platform designed for the country’s South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grant recipients. It enables spaza shops to offer trusted digital store credit, with repayments made seamlessly from monthly grants, helping drive financial inclusion in underserved communities.

Now, the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Fanelesibonge Mbuyazi has been selected as a Top 20 finalist in the Huawei Code4Mzansi Challenge 2026 for this project. Voting closes on 10 May. The software engineer from KwaZulu-Natal works in fintech, digital platforms, and social impact innovation, but, she said, at the core of everything she builds is a focus on access and making sure that systems work for the people who need them most. “Whether it’s through engineering, community work, or global programmes, I am driven by the idea of building technology that restores dignity and creates opportunity,” she noted.

“Being a Top 20 finalist (recently announced as Top 10) is an honour because it recognises both the problem we are solving and the solution we’ve built. The Huawei Code4Mzansi Challenge is about using technology to address real South African challenges – and that’s exactly what e-Khadi represents. The People’s Choice Award is especially meaningful because it comes from the community. It shows that the solution resonates with people, and that’s the goal.”

“Community is not an add-on to my work; it is the foundation of it.”

Mbuyazi explained more about the project: “e-Khadi is a platform that helps people borrow small amounts of money in a safe and fair way. Instead of needing things like payslips or formal credit scores, e-Khadi uses community trust. It looks at how people are connected within stokvels or trusted groups to determine [whether] they can borrow money. Users can then access small, affordable loans directly at local spaza shops, helping them buy essentials like food or electricity when they need it most. So, instead of going to a loan shark, you get help from a system that is built on trust and fairness.”

She added: “Over 18 million people rely on SASSA grants. And for many families, that money runs out within weeks. When emergencies come up – something as basic as food or electricity – people are forced to turn to loan sharks, which traps them in cycles of debt. What motivated me was not just the problem itself, but the lack of fair alternatives. I started asking: What if access to credit didn’t depend on formal systems that exclude people, but instead on the trust that already exists within communities? That question is what led to e-Khadi,” said Mbuyazi.

Financial ecosystem

e-Khadi is built on the idea that communities already have systems that work, like stokvels, and that technology should strengthen those systems – not replace them. “Beyond that, my work in mentorship, CSI initiatives, and community engagement has always been about building with people, not just for them. Community is not an add-on to my work; it is the foundation of it.”

“It’s about making sure that people who have historically been excluded from financial systems are now able to participate in them.”

Mbuyazi continued: “e-Khadi contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 by building an inclusive financial infrastructure that leverages innovation to solve real-world challenges. But it also touches on financial inclusion and inequality more broadly. For me, these goals are not abstract – they are reflected in the everyday realities of the people we are building for. The best part is knowing that technology can directly change someone’s daily reality.

“Digital transformation often focuses on efficiency and scale, but for me, it’s about inclusion. It’s about making sure that people who have historically been excluded from financial systems are now able to participate in them.”

Mbuyazi added that it’s not just about building a platform – it’s about breaking a cycle and creating a new pathway for financial dignity.

“UCT played an important role in shaping how I approach problem-solving. It gave me a strong foundation in information systems; but more importantly, it taught me how to think about systems in a broader context: how technology, people, and processes come together. That way of thinking directly influenced how I approached building e-Khadi.

“The future of e-Khadi is about scale and integration. I see it expanding across more communities, integrating deeper with local businesses like spaza shops, and evolving into a broader financial inclusion platform. Long term, the vision is to contribute to a financial ecosystem where access to credit is fair, community-driven, and accessible to everyone.”

Vote for e-Khadi.