Saving cash-strapped students money

A novel start-up pioneered by two University of Cape Town (UCT) students is set to take the campus community by storm for its nifty and innovative business idea that aims to save cash-strapped students money.

Kennedy Muranda, co-founder of the start-up Vhuka Africa, said the online promotional platform should be every student’s new best friend. He described it as a one-stop shop for promotional deals that has been developed specifically with students on a budget in mind, to help them save time and money.

The idea was sparked when Muranda and brothers Tariro and Kudzai Mukute experienced a “massive” missed promotional opportunity involving a cell phone. Muranda and Tariro Mukute are both UCT students, the former an honours student in the Faculty of Commerce and the latter completing his masterʼs in electrical engineering in the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment.

After some market research and conversations with students on campus to determine whether they were experiencing similar challenges, the results spoke for themselves. The trio knew they had identified the perfect business opportunity, and their start-up was launch in August last year.

“After Kudzai bought a cell phone, a day later he realised another store was offering a promotion on the same phone that would’ve saved him almost R2 000,” Muranda explained.

“Everyone, especially students, needs to save money and needs to know where the good deals are. We knew we were onto something.”

“Everyone, especially students, needs to save money and needs to know where the good deals are. We knew we were onto something.”

A two-way street

Muranda said Vhuka is focused on attracting small businesses in the Rondebosch and surrounding areas with which students are not yet familiar, but which offer services suited to their needs.

The response was overwhelming; several food and beverage outlets, clothing retailers and service providers like hair and beauty salons have already signed up to list their promotions on Vhuka on an ongoing basis.

“It’s a two-way street. We connect consumers to businesses and businesses to consumers. It’s a way of making money and saving money,” he said.

Vhuka is also negotiating with a few outlets in Access Park – an affordable-clothing retail centre in Kenilworth – to sign up to list their store promotions on the platform. And with a mobile app in the pipeline, Muranda said his team hopes to reach additional students who prefer to communicate using their cell phones as opposed to their laptops.

Next steps

In the short term, Vhuka hopes to expand its service beyond the Western Cape to reach students at universities in other provinces. Thanks to the work of Kudzai Mukute, they already have a presence at the University of Zimbabwe and hope to also extend the business to other tertiary institutions in that country.

“Building a credible brand in South Africa and Zimbabwe is our focus and extremely important to us now. We want students to know that they can trust us, the brands we work with and our offering,” Muranda said.

Longer-term plans include expanding further into Africa.

“Everyone’s looking for a deal to save money. It’s the nature of the tough economic times we’re living in. When you’re a student, every penny counts, and this platform allows them to save those pennies easily.”