The Challenge
PACT, a global non-profit that has worked in community development across dozens of countries, runs WORTH, a savings-led microbanking programme that has helped more than half a million women build financial independence through community savings groups. For two decades, WORTH groups tracked their savings, loans and repayments by hand in paper ledgers: a proven model, but slow, error-prone, and impossible to analyse or support at scale across thousands of groups spread over multiple countries.
A WORTH savings group ledger, recorded by hand. Photo: Pact.
Our Approach
Magilatech was engaged as the core system developer to build MyWorth, a mobile microbanking application that digitises the WORTH group ledger into a simple, offline-capable e-ledger. The platform was developed over two years in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), who led the global infrastructure design and implementation across every country where PACT runs the WORTH programme. Magilatech was responsible for the core application, the accounting logic, group and member record-keeping, and the offline-first mobile experience, while HPE delivered the infrastructure layer needed to run it reliably at scale across borders.
What Changed
MyWorth replaced paper record-keeping with a mobile e-ledger that group members and their Empowerment Workers use directly, cutting calculation errors and transaction time while giving every group and individual member a digital financial history, often for the first time. Live since 2018, MyWorth is now widely used by WORTH savings groups in Eswatini and Zambia, and continues to run as one of the core digital tools behind Pact’s WORTH programme today.
A WORTH group member opens the MyWORTH app during a group meeting. Photo: Pact.
Why It Matters
Financial exclusion still affects more than a billion women worldwide. MyWorth didn’t reinvent the WORTH model. It removed the friction of paper, giving each group faster access to its own loan capital, a verifiable financial history, and a stronger foundation for full financial inclusion. It reflects what Magilatech looks for in every engagement: technology built for the realities on the ground, delivered alongside a genuine implementation partner in HPE.
Sources & Further Reading
This case study draws on public reporting from Pact about the WORTH and MyWORTH programme:
- Technology to Provide a Leg-Up to Rural Women, Pact, March 2018
- Celebrating 20 Years of WORTH, Pact, December 2018