The Zlto Exchange system: Promoting social development through a community currency implemented on smartphones

The article presents a study of a youth café initiative for skills training in South Africa where a reward system, the Zlto Exchange (ZE) system with a community currency, Zlto, was implemented on smart phones, to promote personal development and prepare socially challenged youth for the job market. The ZE system enables youth to earn Zlto in exchange for taking part in skills training or doing community work, that can be spent on services and consumables in the local community. This study assesses the qualitative performance of the ZE system and youth café operation, through an inductive qualitative analysis of interviews with café visitors and staff. Using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a lens, the analysis focuses on how the youth café operation supports motivation for personal development. Results indicate that the youth cafés provide a potentially fruitful platform for promoting personal development in youths, based on how the ZE system is embedded in the supportive environment of the youth cafés, and how the youth café operation is integrated in the local communities.