A Campus That Chose Each Other
How Lukenya University turned promises into tuition
by - Dr. AbdulHakim Maina - Ag. Dean, School of Business and Economics, Lukenya University
When money gets tight, communities discover what they already have: each other. That is the heart of our LUSOBE program at Lukenya University - sponsored by Prezenti and built on Sarafu.Network on the Celo blockchain - with practical on/off-ramping to M-Pesa thanks to Pretium and Sargo. We began with a simple belief: tuition should never be held hostage by the calendar or by cash. If a student can teach, repair, cook, design, or organize; if a shop can extend goods; if the university can accept value beyond shillings - then there is enough to keep learning alive.
For Mercy Mutheu, the Lusobe interest-free student loan has been a true lifeline during her time at the university. Like many students, she faced moments when financial challenges almost cost her the chance to sit for her exams.
“Lukenya’s Lusobe interest-free loan has really helped me at times when I had no one to turn to. It has enabled me to sit for my exams, which I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise,” says Mercy.
She has benefited from the program twice, using the funds to stay on track academically and avoid interruptions in her studies. Mercy proudly describes herself as a living example of how Lusobe has changed lives for students across the university.
“I’ve benefited twice from the loan, and I am a living example of how Lusobe has transformed students’ lives.”
For Mercy, Lusobe represents more than financial aid, it symbolizes hope, equal opportunity, and empowerment for students determined to succeed despite financial hardships.
The Lusobe interest-free student loan continues to stand out as a transformative initiative that uplifts students from humble backgrounds, ensuring that financial barriers do not stand in the way of education. Through stories like Mercy’s, it’s clear that Lusobe is not just a loan program, it is a movement of empowerment, opportunity, and hope within the university community.
What We Built
We set up a Lukenya University Commitment Pool - a shared ledger where people can pledge what they can offer and redeem what they need. Lukenya seeded this pool with digital LUSOBE vouchers that are redeemable for tuition. Students who needed help could apply for zero-interest loans. Some repaid in cash when it came in. Others issued their own student vouchers - a promise to tutor, to assist in labs, to support school activities - and placed those commitments in the pool as collateral. A classmate might take up the tutoring hours; a department might redeem the lab support; the café might accept vouchers for meals. Each fulfilled promise reduced the student’s obligation while circulating real value on campus. Because Sarafu runs on Celo, everything remained transparent yet light-touch, and with Sargo we could bridge stablecoins and M-Pesa (to national currency) when needed.
How It Felt On Campus
If you’ve ever sat at a fundraiser and thought, “I want to help, but I don’t have cash today,” you understand the shift. We stopped asking only for money and started asking, “What can you contribute?” A literature student offered evening tutoring. A carpenter’s parents fixed a leaking roof. A café accepted vouchers for meals during exam season. The bursar’s desk became less like a gate and more like a gardener, tending to commitments as they sprouted into fulfilled study hours, repaired shelves, clean kitchens, and—most importantly—students sitting their exams on time.
Evidence
You don’t have to take my word for it. The LUSOBE Tuition Voucher ledger is transparent on Celo Blockchain and shows 3,311 transactions moving 2,979,561 in value, with 327 holders and 20 merchants participating:
https://sarafu.network/vouchers/0xCC94aaFf278eEf04d4ba2f46Eac8C91f8914f644
Our Lukenya Commitment Pool tracks the swaps and redemptions that make those promises real, including 275 swaps with over 1,043,669.26 in volume flowing into the pool and 8,019.4 flowing out:
https://sarafu.network/pools/0xB1a711609914A6A7281f4B0D0D2a52d82F48d884
Across the year, we issued KSh 403,210 in interest-free student loans. To back those loans with real effort, students minted 28 ERC-20 “student commitment” vouchers on Celo blockchain via Sarafu.Network - their own pledges to tutor, assist, and serve on campus. Altogether, the total value locked in vouchers from the university, shops, and students grew to more than five times the grant size. That is what shared trust looks like in numbers: generosity compounding faster than interest.
Why This Is Deeply Islamic and Deeply Kenyan
Many students and families asked whether this model is compatible with Islamic finance. The answer is not only “yes”—it is exactly the point. There is no interest. Risk and responsibility are shared. Value is created by real work and real goods, not by money breeding money. It echoes the mutual-aid traditions that long predate modern banking here: neighbors clearing fields together, women’s groups rotating support, traders extending store credit based on character and continuity. By recording those relationships as vouchers and commitments, we gave an old practice a modern memory.
Stories That Stayed With Me
One fourth-year student told us that a five-minute loan at a modest amount, repaid on time, raised his limit just enough to clear fees and keep the lights on at home. Another admitted he had missed exams in the past; with LUSOBE, he paid on time with no interest and no pressure. Another student said plainly: “I had no one to turn to- this let me sit for my exams.” These are not slogans. They are quiet victories, the kind that accumulate into graduation days.
Beyond the Campus Gates
Because Commitment Pooling on Sarafu.Network is open and light, the model traveled. Community groups in both rural and urban Kenya began adopting the same pattern (about seventy groups so far!) shifting their savings and loan programs into commitment pools where time, skills, and goods move side by side with shillings. Even in refugee camps, where formal jobs are scarce but human capacity abounds, commitment pools have become a way to recognize dignity, organize work, and meet needs without waiting for cash infusions. A teacher can pledge language classes, a mechanic can pledge repair hours, a farmer can pledge produce, and a mother can pledge childcare …. each promise redeemed against shared community goals.
Why Technology Mattered (But Didn’t Take Center Stage)
Prezenti believed early that this wasn’t just a finance experiment; it was a community experiment. Their sponsorship let us move carefully and report honestly. Sarafu.Network on Celo gave us reliability and transparency without tech hype—just a simple, verifiable ledger anyone can read. Sargo made it practical, letting people bridge stablecoins to M-Pesa so vouchers didn’t float in a digital bubble. And we owe gratitude to Will Ruddick and the Grassroots Economics Foundation team for building Sarafu.Network and for years of patient work proving that community can stabilize households, shops, schools, and farms when formal finance looks away.
What Comes Next
We will widen the pool, deepen merchant participation, and federate with other pools designed for Islamic finance and student support. Federation means each pool keeps its own rules and leadership while still trading fairly with neighbors. It prevents bottlenecks and keeps power local. In practice, that looks like more students studying, more shops turning inventory, more families breathing, and fewer opportunities lost to the timing of cash.
A Simple Invitation
If your school, clinic, or neighborhood is struggling with liquidity, don’t wait for a donor to rescue you. Start a small commitment pool. Ask people what they can seed—hours, harvests, fixes, rides—and keep a clean record of offers and redemptions. Use Sarafu.Network if it helps to be digital, or paper if that’s where you are. The miracle is not the software; it’s the shared memory of who showed up and how.
Deep Thanks
To Prezenti for sponsorship
To Sarafu.Network on Celo Blockchain for the rails.
To Pretium and Sargo for seamless M-Pesa ramps
To Will Ruddick and the Grassroots Economics Foundation team for the groundwork that made this natural.
And to the students, merchants, bursars, and parents who turned a ledger into a living promise.
Education is not a commodity. It is a relationship. LUSOBE simply wrote that truth down … and let it circulate.
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