Wechezaji DAO

Wechezaji DAO powers community savings groups on Shirikia — called Saccos (also known as Chamas). A Sacco is a group of people who save together, access loans from the group pool, and make decisions together. Each Sacco is its own independent DAO. That means every group can set up its own governance rules, create proposals, and vote on decisions — separate from the main Shirikia DAO. Members participate based on the rules that their specific Sacco defines.

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Find and join a Sacco

1. Go to the Saccos page to see all available groups.
2. Browse the list and find one that interests you.
3. Click Join.

• Public Saccos — you join immediately.
• Private Saccos — your request goes to the group creator for approval.

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Create your own Sacco

Want to start your own savings group? You can create one in minutes.

1. Go to the Saccos page and click Create Sacco.
2. Give your group a name and description.
3. Choose whether it is public (anyone can join) or private (you approve new members).
4. Confirm to create your Sacco.

You become the first member and the group creator automatically.

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Managing your Sacco (group creators)

If you created a Sacco, you have additional tools to manage it.

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Approve or reject join requests

For private Saccos, new members need your approval:

1. Go to your Sacco’s Join Requests section.
2. Review each request.
3. Approve or reject as needed.

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Update group settings

• Change the Sacco’s name or description
• Toggle between public and private
• Remove members who no longer belong (members with active loans or savings cannot be removed)

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Governance

Wechezaji uses on-chain governance only — all decisions are recorded on the blockchain. There is no separate off-chain voting system. Every Sacco can choose its own parameters (like voting period and quorum), but the core process is always fully on-chain. The governance system works the same way as the main Shirikia DAO governance — the same proposal lifecycle, voting, delegation, and execution process. The only difference is that it applies to your Sacco’s decisions instead of the platform as a whole.

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Step 1: Create your governance token

Before setting up voting, your Sacco needs its own governance token. This token represents membership and voting power within the group. When creating the token you will provide:

• Token name — a human-readable name for the token (e.g. “Umoja Chama Token”)
• Token symbol — a short ticker (e.g. “UCT”)
• Initial supply — how many tokens to mint at creation
• Recipient to mint — who receives the initial tokens (usually the group creator, who then distributes them to members)
• Owner address — the address that controls admin actions for the token (normally the Sacco creator)

In most cases, the recipient and owner will automatically be filled in with your currently connected wallet address. You can change them if you want someone else to hold or manage the initial tokens. Why does a Sacco need a token? The token is how the system knows who is allowed to vote and how much voting power each member has. Owning more tokens means more voting power.

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Step 2: Set up the voting system (DAO)

Once your token exists, you set up the actual voting system by deploying a DAO for your Sacco. This is where you define the rules of how your group makes decisions. You will be asked for the following parameters:

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Step 3: Delegate your voting power

After the token and DAO are set up, there is one important step every member must complete before they can vote — delegation. What is delegation? Delegation is how you activate your voting power. Even though you hold tokens, the voting system does not count your tokens until you tell it who should vote with them. You can either:

• Delegate to yourself — you vote directly using your own tokens
• Delegate to someone else — you trust another member to vote on your behalf

How to delegate:

1. Go to your Sacco’s Governance section.
2. Scroll down to the Members section — the delegate controls live just below the members list.
3. Click Delegate.
4. Choose yourself or enter another member’s wallet address.
5. Confirm the transaction in your wallet.

After delegating, your voting power will match your token balance and you are ready to participate in proposals.

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Step 4: Distribute tokens to members

Once the DAO is created and delegation is understood, you can mint and distribute tokens to Sacco members so they can participate in governance. As the group creator, you can mint tokens to any member’s wallet address. This is how you bring members into the voting system — a member without tokens cannot delegate or vote.

1. Go to your Sacco’s Governance section.
2. Select Mint Tokens.
3. Enter the member’s wallet address and the amount of tokens to give them.
4. Confirm the transaction in your wallet.

You can distribute tokens however your group agrees — equal amounts to everyone, proportional to each member’s savings contribution, or any other arrangement. You can also mint additional tokens later as new members join.

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Creating proposals and voting

Once governance is set up, any member who meets the proposal threshold can create proposals, and all token holders who have delegated can vote. The process works exactly the same as Shirikia platform governance — see that page for full details on creating proposals, what each field means, and how voting works. The governance page for your Sacco shows all active and past proposals, vote counts, your token balance, your voting power, and the group treasury balance.

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Quick governance cheatsheet

• Token name & symbol: Just the name and short code for your Sacco’s vote token (e.g. Umoja Chama Token / UCT).
• Recipient to mint & owner address: Who gets the first batch of tokens and who controls admin actions — usually your own connected wallet.
• Mint Tokens tab: Shows only for the Sacco creator after the DAO is set up; use it to give tokens to members so they can delegate and vote.
• Proposal threshold: Minimum delegated tokens needed to create a proposal — set higher to limit who can propose, or 0 so any token holder can.
• Delegation: Done under the Members section; without delegating, your voting power is 0 even if you hold tokens.
• Voting: For / Against / Abstain — your voting power is exactly how many tokens have been delegated to your address (visible in both the Sacco and main dashboard).