TBCA Registered Self-Help Group Nairobi since 2023

Start your own

Start your own chama, the way we run ours.

TBCA now offers the platform it runs on to other groups, as GroupFund: your own address, your own rules and positions, a constitution written with you or read from yours, and every member's contributions and loans from the first day.

Start your own chama See GroupFund

GroupFund is in its pilot. It's a separate platform: nothing from TBCA's member records goes to it.

Five things TBCA put in writing before money moved

  1. Start with people who already trust each other

    Membership stayed capped and limited to one real, existing circle, Strathmore School's Class of 2022, rather than opening recruitment. A pooled-capital group runs on trust before it runs on money. It's easier to keep that trust real in a small, known group than to vet strangers into one.

    Constitution, Article 3.1

  2. Register properly and bank in the group's own name

    TBCA is a registered Self-Help Group with its own KRA PIN and official bank accounts. Money sits in a personal account only in rare, fully disclosed exceptions approved by several officials, never as the default.

    Constitution, Article 1

  3. Make the loan ceiling limit itself

    No member can ever borrow more than their own confirmed contributions. The group can never over-lend against money it doesn't actually have, however good the request sounds.

    Constitution, Article 6.1

  4. Make not taking part a real, enforced rule

    Six months running without a contribution ends membership automatically. It's a written rule that applies the same way to everyone, not a vague expectation that erodes quietly.

    Constitution, Article 3.4

  5. Put real decisions to a real vote

    Investments, large financial commitments, membership changes and any change to the constitution itself all need a formal vote, with a published quorum. Never one official's judgment call, however well-meaning.

    Constitution, Article 7.3

What this page isn't

TBCA isn't accepting new members beyond its own Class of 2022 circle, doesn't offer legal or financial advice, and isn't affiliated with any other organisation that shares its initials. This page exists because "different cities, different careers, one shared account" turned out to be a story worth telling honestly. It's not because TBCA is recruiting.

The next group

If fifteen classmates can turn a monthly contribution into a real portfolio, so can the next group willing to start one.

Start your own chamaSee GroupFund