Johnathan Paoli
Presenting to the multi-party women’s caucus in parliament on Thursday, Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that the DWYPD is moving forward with setting up a cooperative bank for the specific purpose of advancing the inclusion of women, youth and persons with disabilities and their businesses and other co-operatives.
The South African Innovative Financial Services (SAIFS) bank is expected to assist vulnerable groups in taking control of their own “financial destiny” and freeing themselves from abuse in line with the department’s mandate.
Dlamini-Zuma said that although it is a government initiative, the cooperative bank being proposed was not a state bank or government bank and that plans for the bank were drawn up in cooperation with the Cooperative Banks Development Agency (CBDA) in order to ensure that no mistakes were made.
In addition, the minister said that due to the bank’s expected function as a deposit-taking institution, registration with the Prudential Authority was required.
The minister said that to establish a cooperative bank, the law requires that co-operatives share a common bond, have a minimum of R100 000 in share capital and have at least 200 members, in addition to a total of R5 million in deposits by members as a demonstration of the financial, operational and human capacity needed to operate as a bank.
Dlamini-Zuma said that there are 429 active members with R257 400 in shared capital, and anticipates reaching 10 000 members and R5 million in deposits within 12 months of the date of the approval of the licence.
Pending approval of its registration package by the Prudential authority, the ministry is expected to launch the bank in January 2024, with operations commencing in July 2024 with savings and investments.
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