How to start a new VICOBA cycle
A VICOBA (kikundi cha kuweka na kukopa) does not run as an open-ended savings account — it runs in cycles. Starting a cycle in Ustawi sets the parameters the whole period will be measured against and opens the group's fund ledger, so every share, contribution, loan and fine that follows has a defined period it belongs to.
Why a cycle, not an account
A VICOBA cycle is a discrete, closable period. Members buy shares meeting by meeting, contribute to a social fund, pay fines, and lend to each other from the pooled fund — then, at the end of the cycle, everything is shared out. Because the cycle is a bounded period, nothing carries over silently into the next one: the fund is reconciled and distributed before a new cycle can open. Modelling the group as a flat account would lose exactly this structure.
What you set when opening a cycle
- 1Cycle lengthThe period the cycle runs for, from open to the planned share-out. This frames the meeting schedule and the point at which the group expects to distribute the fund.
- 2Contribution amountThe share value and expected contribution members buy into meeting by meeting — the unit the fund ledger accumulates and the share-out is later weighted against.
- 3Group membershipThe members entering the cycle. Members joining later are handled as a mid-cycle change rather than by reopening these settings.
Initializing the fund ledger
Opening the cycle initializes the group's fund ledger — the single ledger through which shares, internal loans, interest and fines all flow for this cycle. From this point every meeting entry posts into that ledger, so the group's financial position for the cycle is always a single source of truth rather than a coordinator's spreadsheet.
A group runs one cycle at a time. The previous cycle must be closed out — final meeting, share-out and reconciliation — before a new cycle opens, so the two periods never overlap.