Fostering Local Well-being ambassadors perform a play that depicts how the K-rand will work among Kokstad business people. photo: ntuntu dweba RSS K'Mali (Kokstad Money)2015-12-12 K'Mali (Kokstad Money) is an innovative complementary currency or local system of mutual credit for community exchange that functions alongside the national currency (Rand) with the aim to improve trade stability, economic growth and help support local well-being and sustainable selfdetermination
in the community of Kokstad. K'Mali is a local community currency that is so far backed by the productivity of over 115 local Kokstad businesses. K'Mali functions like a loyalty voucher for local business, increasing their cash liquidity. Because it is usually spent in combination with the national currency, it helps move the Rand around Kokstad and this stabilises the market. Kokstad's KEN members (K'Mali Exchange Network members) range from big businesses to small businesses, to home industries and are largely representative of the service sector, retail and local production. There is no Rand cost to join the K'Mali Exchange Network. To be eligible to be a member of KEN you need to provide goods and services wanted by the community of Kokstad and find four other legitimate businesses to back your business. K'Mali represents a small loan (mutual credit) you are getting in the form of goods and services that other members of the Network provide. Each KEN member receives and effectively brings 500 K'Mali of value into local circulation for trade (equivalent to R500 in value). This money represents new wealth generated that cannot 'leak' out of Kokstad. Businesses must pay back this 'credit' by accepting and maintaining a balance of 500 K'Mali for their own goods and services that they provide. The more trade you do, the more K'Mali flows through your business along with national currency. K'Mali is real money
Security features include:
micro-credit to be offered for business development, utilise a digital payment platform, be used to fund large community improvement projects, monthly markets and enable general consumers and tourists to swop national currency into local currency to capture wealth locally and ensure continued support for local business, much like a loyalty reward system. Each time a person uses K'Mali in a transaction for goods or services, they are in effect 'voting' for local business to succeed and ensuring that a proportion of profits generated will only be spent locally and thereby further helping to develop the community. K'Mali was instigated in Kokstad by FLOW Africa and is an associated research project of the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) of the University of Cape Town (UCT). It is being funded through the Technical and Management Support (TMS) Programme (managed by the National Treasury), which is part of the Development Cooperation Agenda between the Governments of South Africa and Flanders and part-funded and implemented by Meshfield. The findings of the FLOW Programme are intended to inform national policy around developing sustainable local economies. If there are any questions please feel free to call the Kokstad FLOW Programme Coordinator, Piet Bosman, on Te1: 071 036 1408 kmali@fl owafrica.org |
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