Entrepreneurs play a big role in creating employment in South Africa, businesspeople from Durbanville were told at a network event of Durbanville Business last Thursday at 360\u00b0 Bloemendal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gerrie Fourie, chief executive officer of Capitec, was the guest speaker and shared anecdotes about the success road of Capitec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEverybody talks about an unemployment rate of 33%. (At Capitec we talk about an) unemployment rate of between 10 and 12%. I have hundreds of examples in the townships of women who sell vetkoek<\/em> at one rand a vetkoek<\/em>. Their costs are 50 cents per vetkoek<\/em> and they sell a thousand vetkoeke<\/em> per day. These women are considered unemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have examples of people who sell vegetables and goods, who earn between R50 000 and R80 000 per day, and their net profit is 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow do we bank these people? We need to make banking simple. We have lowered the costs of a point of sale machine R99 for our entry level and R199 for our top end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe made our commission rates simpler. Ours are simple, easy, transparent and all legal. We want to give people with money a bank account. These people don\u2019t have assets, but they have a cash flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have told you many beautiful stories of people who we have helped when they have just started, and today have three, four or five bakkies that operate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we want to be successful in South Africa, then we have to unlock the emerging market,\u201d Fourie said. \u201cIt is not the big companies and the state that will create jobs, it is the entrepreneurs that will employ people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible journey that we are on. I think it lies within our culture. I once said at a conference that you can go to Switzerland . . . everything works, but there are no opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn South Africa nothing works, but there are a lot of opportunities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his introduction of Fourie to the audience, Andries Venter, vice-chair of Durbanville Business, said under Fourie\u2019s leadership Capitec has grown into South Africa\u2019s largest retail bank by client numbers, exceeding 23 million clients in 2024, and now also expanding into other business and insurance offerings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDuring his 25-year tenure Capitec has evolved from a niche player to an industry leader, offering comprehensive financial services while maintaining simplicity, affordability and transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe has spearheaded the development of the award-winning banking app, advanced digital banking platforms and innovative credit solutions. His leadership has earned him recognition as one of South Africa\u2019s top business leaders, with Capitec consistently being lauded for customer satisfaction and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fourie said the story of Capitec\u2019s success over 25 years is an incredible South African story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can say that we started something in 2000 and look where we are now. I was 37 years old at the time, our executive committee was also between 37 and 40 years old. To say you take the traditional four banks on in their field, and go out with a different attitude, do things differently and disrupt banking, is half crazy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut if you believe in something, if you have that passion, drive and focus, you can achieve anything. If you look at South Africa, in the last 10 years our economy has not grown, but Capitec has grown with about 20% per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe first six months you start with the business, you jump in and do certain things. You just want to grow, and you just want to make happy clients. But we actually sat for six to nine months, and we wrote a business plan. We debated about every single aspect of the business. We debated about what are our fundamentals. Simplicity, accessibility, affordability, and service is our fundamentals that we live by. And until today, if we make any decision, we go back to those four fundamentals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat business plan said we will do retail, and we will do retail alone. And as you know now, we have moved completely away to different areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut, when we started, we said we will have one product, which is everything. The access is the same for everybody, no matter if you are rich, or if you have average income or who you are. And your price structure is 100% the same. That principle is still there today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I talk to people in the business community, they ask me how is your service better than other people? We said, first of all, we went to appoint the best people. Then in 2012, we went so far as to say, every screen is what we call side by side consulting, where what the consultant see, is exactly the same as what the client sees. It\u2019s is there on the computer; you can see, you can\u2019t afford this loan. It\u2019s that kind of system that makes a difference in detail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt takes you 12 years to build a brand, and then comes consistency. You have to do everything exactly the same so that you can build trust. And we all know, trust you break in seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was actually in 2014 when the African Bank went under that we finally got to the point where people saw that we are totally different and we are a bank. It was an absolute obsession that every branch, every consultant, every person did exactly the same. We always said, we are not a bank. A bank looks at risk first, then at its client. We are a retailer \u2013 a retailer first looks at his client and then he looks at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is part of our formula. And that is also why you have to make sure that each of the 860 branches work exactly the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2014, we first released our app. And today our app is one of our most important channels. We now have 12.5 million clients who use the app at least once a month. We have 16 million clients who have already used the app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you look at our strategy, we say we have to have branches and we have to have an app. It is very easy to do a transaction, but if you want to do something a bit more difficult, then you want to talk to someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are already at 23 million clients, and we hope to be at 25 million by the end of the year. In January alone, 200 000 new clients joined us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had a strategic session in 2017 and we said that if we want to serve our clients, we have to offer financial services in totality. We cannot just be a retail bank, we have to offer other goods too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the last four years, we\u2019ve spent R6.5 billion on investment on growth in the digital space. When the economy was down, and everyone was trying to survive, we said we\u2019re going to go, and we\u2019re going to grow. So you need to be different and to think differently,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRetail is still our biggest source of income. To do that, you need data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt starts with airtime. We control now about 37% to 38% of all airtime that gets paid through our app. If I look at electricity, we now control about 30% of all that\u2019s going through our apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve launched Capital Connect and have about 1.5 million clients. How do we optimise it? The answer is data, because then I understand who you\u2019re phoning, when you\u2019re phoning, what time you\u2019re phoning, and all of that we can use to optimise our client base,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Entrepreneurs play a big role in creating employment in South Africa, businesspeople from Durbanville were told at a network event of Durbanville Business last Thursday at 360\u00b0 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market<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
South African story<\/h3>\n\n\n\n