THE HASSLE OF CONTRIBUTING MONEY IN KENYA AND HOW BESTRANSFER IS CHANGING THIS
No man is an island. A cliché, but true. Since time immemorial, long before our founding fathers coined the term “Harambee” which loosely translates to ‘pulling together’, our culture of giving has been the cornerstone for the community. It’s therefore not alien that Kenya has been dubbed the most generous country in Africa. This is attributed to the deeply engrained culture of giving. The society we are living in is inundated by a myriad of challenges ranging from hospital bills, funeral arrangements, wedding committees and a mountain heap of school fees arrears among others. This has seen the forces of contribution to noble causes, muster a crushing momentum.
Technology meets culture:
In the wake of new technology and the advent of a cashless society, breakthroughs and innovations have gradually seen digital payments continue to march to become the dominant method of financial transaction. Hence, this is an exciting time for mobile apps that deal with digital payments. Contribution and handling of money has taken a more digital approach away from the traditional harambees. People are contributing money through diverse digital platforms and this has not been without challenges. Even with the saturation of mobile apps in the digital space dealing with money, there has been one unexplored niche, how to make contributing money in a digital platform as a group easy and hassle free.
Case in point is the story of Jane* and John*, a young couple who having undergone courtship for a while decided it was time they were joined together in holy matrimony, have morally-sanctioned sex and make babies who wouldn’t be called bastards. As with many people are wont to do in a bid to legitimize their union, now was the opportune time to sanction the help of their friends/family and what other better way than to create a wedding committee? The prime purpose of a wedding committee is to contribute money. What could possibly go wrong? The wedding committee group was flaunted by a heap of issues. Topping the list was everyone’s bane of existence-the endless supply of “forwarded as received messages”, posts of raunchy photos and videos that your grandmother would frown upon, a myriad of vernacular songs and such like extremities. All the while there was very little content about the wedding. Subsequently, fights in the group was common place about the money being contributed as there lacked transparency on the amount of money targeted. This fostered bad relations among the couple and their circle of friends and family. Then there is the sticky issue of leaving the group. Never mind that the group’s purpose has been achieved, leaving the group is still frowned upon. You are left with no option that to stay put in a stale group and bombarded with overshared
quotes and long posts that demand you share with other people in your contact list, lest you’re struck down by lightning or in extreme cases, three generations of your family is cursed.
Fortunately, there’s an app that solves all of the aforementioned problems. You don’t have to be subjected to receiving irrelevant messages or posts from people who want to test out their comedic skills. The target of the group is clear and most importantly, there are no fights or snide
remarks in the group caused by the amount of money contributed, whether small or large. The group also closes itself automatically once the expiry date of the group reaches, which is set at the initial stages of creating the group by the admin.
What is BesTransfer?
BesTransfer is a mobile application which enables you to send money in groups. You create a group and select the beneficiary, that is, the person who will get the money after the group closes. At this point you add other users of the app who wish to contribute; it could be family, colleagues or friends. You can contribute money directly to the group and also track the group progress, in terms of the amount already contributed and the target amount of the group. The money is sent directly to the beneficiary after the group closes.
It is a fast, safe and efficient mobile platform to mobilize money from people for specific causes.
You can find the app on Google Play store. Download and contribute money with your friends.
