SOUTH Africa’s banks need to better tailor their products to consumers’ needs to increase equality rather than just offering more credit, the central-bank governor has said.
“People think financial inclusion is like shoving credit down the throats of the poor and that is not quite financial inclusion,” Lesetja Kganyago said in a virtual event. While access to credit is very important, it must be tested against affordability, he said.
SA has battled to meaningfully include a larger portion of its population in mainstream finance, with few lower-income earners able to access loans from banks.
That’s just one factor helping to maintain the nation’s position as the world’s most unequal society, a status quo that stems from the system of white minority rule which ended in 1994.
Sluggish progress
The country’s banks have also been criticised for sluggish progress in increasing black representation in their ownership structures and top management.
A report
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