What post-project drop-off taught us about building staying-power into digital record-keeping.
Key take-aways
- Success during a project can mask fragility. Within ten months Jamii.one supported 708 groups (24,042 members) to go digital and counted 11,887 active users each month. Yet three months after donor funding ended, only about 15 % of those groups were still recording meetings.
- Field incentives matter. When Community Digitalisation Promoters (CDPs) stopped receiving stipends, registrations plummeted; a one–day bonus campaign in January 2025 generated 2,000 meeting records, showing how tightly usage tracks payments.
- Transfer of know–how is the weak link. Despite four supported meetings per group and a deliberately “use-the-groups’-own-phone” design, many groups still relied on the CDP to drive the app.
- Drop–off is not unique. Other DSG Hub contributors describe similarly incremental and uneven digital journeys and warn that enthusiasm during pilots doesn’t guarantee scale–out.
- Cold data is our friend. Digital ledgers show the cliff edge in real time, forcing honest conversations that paper systems can easily hide.
From rapid rise to sudden stop
In January 2024, Jamii.one Foundation initiated a project to support community groups in better managing their financial records and creating avenues for financial linkage through digital tools. The first step involved identifying suitable individuals to champion this change within their communities. Partnering with Caritas Kenya, Jamii.one Foundation identified potential candidates who were passionate about digitalisation and familiar with the operations of local groups. With the assistance of local Diocese directors and the Caritas Kenya Director, twenty-five promising individuals were selected and interviewed, who subsequently became Community Digitalisation Promoters (CDPs). In February, the CDPs participated in a two-day intensive training session where they learned the intricacies of the Jamii.one app, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to guide their groups towards digital records management.
By December 2024 the FAHU–funded project looked like a runaway success. All project targets has been surpassed. Groups with a total of over eleven thousand members were registering their meetings in the app and had been doing so continuously for over three months.
| Metric | Target | Result (end of project) |
| Groups digitalised | 635 | 708 |
| Members onboarded | 10,000 | 24,042 |
| Monthly active users | 10,000 | 11,887 |
Yet by March 2025 Jamii.one’s dashboard lit up red. Meeting registrations had fallen by roughly 80%. Less than one in six groups bothered to record a single transaction. The sudden silence triggered the question behind this article: are we building castles in the air, or can savings–group digitalisation stick once the project trucks drive away?
What we tried to build in
Our goal was to enhance the digital literacy of savings group members by promoting the utilisation of the Jamii.one Platform as an alternative to conventional paper ledgers, targeting 10,000 (new and existing Community Saving Group members) by applying the below strategies:
- Local champions: Local champions, not outsiders. 25 CDPs were recruited from within dioceses they already served.
- Group–owned devices: Each group was encouraged to register using its own smartphone to promote ownership and accountability. Through Jamii.Insights, we closely tracked the phone used during group registration and flagged any cases where CDP phone was used, ensuring those registrations were redone using the group’s own phone number. By year end, all newly registered groups were created using group-owned devices, not CDP phones.
- Four guided meetings: CDPs stayed until the group could run four consecutive meetings alone—mirroring DreamStart Labs’ “digital–champion” tip.
- Offline–first design: The app works without data, auto–syncing when coverage returns.
- Close monitoring and support:; Weekly meetings where set up. Here, CDPs shared updates, challenges, and plans for the week. This allowed Jamii.one to quickly identify gaps and offer targeted support. This was reinforced by monthly one–on–one check–ins with each CDP which gave a deeper view of individual CDP performance and support needs,Finally, end of-month reviews were held witht he local partner which ensured alignment, addressed emerging issues, and allowed for timely resource adjustments.as needed.
These measures, however, did not prevent the crash.
Hypotheses for the post-project cliff
Experiencing this drop-off in spite of all the strategies applied begs the question: what is standing in the way of sustained digital adoption. Some of the hypotheses we are working with include:
|
Hypothesis |
What we hypothesise |
Early evidence |
|
End-user incentive not high enough |
Benefits of digitalisation; efficiency, automatic calculation, transparency, safe record storage – alone, does not present a high enough incentive to keep groups hooked. |
Micro–insurance linkages were announced but postponed, denting excitement. |
|
Knowledge is not transferred |
CDPs did not train the groups to register independently, but instead visited and conducted the registrations for them. Despite strong guidance that groups should handle registration themselves, this did not happen. |
CDP stipends stopped on 31 Dec 2024. Meeting registrations fell the very next month. |
|
Training ≠ mastering |
Four–meeting model may be too shallow to build confidence in the groups to conduct registrations independently. |
Case stories still describe reliance on CDPs months later. |
|
One smartphone per group is not enough |
Even if groups registered some meetings themselves, relying on just one smartphone creates risk. If the phone is lost, out of battery, unavailable, or offline, the group cannot register or upload data. |
86% of groups were registering using a none-CDP phone, yet, when stipends stopped, as did registrations. |
|
Financial incentive structure blocks sustainability |
Although CDPs may want the best for the groups, transferring registration to the group threatens their role and income. As long as agents are paid to register meetings, they may avoid building group independence. |
Registrations stopped with the end of stipends. One–day performance bonus in Jan 2025 produced 2,000 registrations—eight times the daily average. |
|
Ghost groups inflate baselines |
It is well-known that not all groups that are recorded to exist, in fact exist when we start to require one profile per person with full name and phone number. |
Duplicate or false groups were identified during quality checks and may remain in the dataset, exaggerating the apparent drop in activity. |
Most likely, the explanation for the decline is a combination of these hypotheses and more.
Is 15% really a failure?
Some practitioners argue that any voluntary tech adoption after subsidised support is a win, citing historic “patient optimism” in microfinance roll–outs. We agree that digital journeys are incremental, but if 85% of groups abandon the tool, few funders will keep paying for the journey.
From Manual Struggles to Digital Success: How Jamii.One Transformed Starlight 24 into a Model SILC Group in Nakuru Diocese
The group started in 2021 based on the SILC programme in Nakuru County. At first, they faced a lot of mistrust from the community. This was due to several other groups in the area having failed.
Despite this, Starlight 24 became one of the most stable SILC groups, with twenty-five members. Over time, the members had a strong impact. They influenced others in the community to join SILC groups, start saving, and support each other during emergencies. This has been evident in several recent cases.
Before Jamii.one, this group used to spend about one hour on their meetings. Time taking manual accounting would often drag out meeting and make members arrive home late. Jamii.one introduced a better service. Digital record keeping and automatic calculations reduced meeting time. It also helps with faster summation of savings and interest, and ensures the group’s records are stored safely. The change has made the group more lively. Members are even eager to be the one whose phone is used to fill in the group’s data.
Beyond the project: redesigning for stickiness
- Develop a model where during the project, agents remuneration is not from digitalisation but for supporting transferring digital literacy to the groups. And post-project, there is a continuous financial incentive for agents to continue to support groups e.g. through commercial sales like financial product linkage.
- Name and train two “tech champions” per group. DreamStart Labs’ pilots show champions halve support calls. Top 10 Tips for Running a Great Digital Savings Group Pilot
- Pair digital record–keeping with an immediate win. For Jamii.one, that is the March 2025 launch of the Britam micro–insurance bundle; groups that pay premiums through the app will have a built–in reason to keep recording.
- Make the drop–off visible. Share real–time dashboards with donors and partners so course–corrections happen before the end–line survey.
Take Action: questions for your next DSG pilot
- What happens on Day 366? Map post–funding user journeys before the kick–off workshop.
- Who loses a job if groups can self–record? Long-term collaboration with agents through financial products offering and digitalisation as a means to access the products.
- Can every signer operate the app with the data turned off? Hand over the phone and find out.
- What “hook product” will keep the group coming back? Savings, insurance, marketplace— pick one and launch it fast.
Conclusion
Digital ledgers give us unprecedented transparency, but they also expose uncomfortable truths. The data from Kenya suggests that technology alone cannot outlive the project cycle. Until local incentives, ownership, and immediate value are built into the model, post–project drop–off will remain the challenge of promising pilots. It’s important that we share difficult lessons openly. Only then can we work together to find practical solutions that overcome barriers and help digital savings groups grow in resilience and prosperity. What have you learned? Share it with us below.
