Author: Staff Writer
The rapidly growing number of subscribers to Liberty’s Stash tax-free investment app is showing the difference in investment outlooks by different age groups and living circumstances in South Africa. Broadly, the app shows that younger investors are more tech-savvy and look online for investment options that provide them with flexibility, while older Stash investors over 40 are more focused on long-term savings goals. The app is also generating a considerable amount of interest in investing among people who don’t live in major cities but in semi-urban and rural areas. Liberty said Stash has a 111,000 active TFI accounts and over…
Naspers, through its early-stage tech investment vehicle Naspers Foundry, announced a R120 million or $8.3 million investment in Naked, the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven InsurTech company that offers a new, fully digital way for consumers to insure their cars, homes, and valuables. The transaction is Naspers Foundry’s second InsurTech investment in two weeks and its biggest investment to date. The investment is part of Naspers’s R1.4 billion commitment to grow South Africa’s early-stage tech ecosystem through Naspers Foundry. “Our ambition is to build insurance that people love by offering an experience that is affordable, convenient and transparent. We have come a…
SAP Africa has announced the appointment of Tracy Bolton as its new Chief Operating Officer for the Africa region. Cathy Smith, Managing Director at SAP Africa, says Bolton has played a crucial role in helping SAP expand its offering to new customers and drive cloud adoption among African enterprises. “Tracy has demonstrable success in leading our teams as they execute against strategic plans to deliver tangible customer outcomes. Her experience and knowledge will be invaluable as she takes on her new responsibilities.” Bolton, a 25-year IT industry veteran who has held several leadership positions at SAP over the past nine…
Telkom today revealed that it has added Instant Messaging (IM) platform, Telegram, to its FreeMe offer, both on Postpaid plans and Prepaid bundles. This after observing a keen interest by a significant portion of its customers in this platform and a sizeable uptake to it, at the start of 2021 as many sought out IM application alternatives mainly due to privacy reasons. Within 72 hours of WhatsApp’s privacy policy update at the start of the year, approximately 25 million users across the world had downloaded alternative IM platform Telegram and over 800 000 joined Signal. South Africa was no exception, as…
Vodacom has launched three new 30-day promotional LTE bundles available exclusively to new prepaid customers. Everyday-ta! Data Bundles come standard with a bolt-on YouTube data allocation, enabling customers to stay connected on SA’s leading network. To enjoy access to the Everyday-ta! Data Bundles, customers need to simply buy a bundle via the My Vodacom App or *135*111#. The bundle will be rationed in equal daily amounts, over the validity period with a YouTube allocation. For example, a customer opting for a 30GB Everyday-ta! Data Bundle at R299, will get a 1GB anytime data, every single day for 30 days,…
Movile, one of Latin America’s leading and longest-standing investors and growth accelerators for technology companies, has received a new investment from Prosus totaling$200 million or R2.8 billion, the largest primary investment in a single round since Movile’s founding in 1998. Prosus, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world, has been an investor since 2008 and is the majority shareholder of Movile. The new funds will go towards expanding Movile’s current companies, including iFood, a leading foodtech company and one of the biggest tech success stories to date in Latin America; MovilePay and Zoop, two of…
Following the devastating scenes of unrest and violence in parts of South Africa, and the vandalising of infrastructure, Absa has introduced a range of customised relief measures for customers impacted by the recent disorder. “Through and post the crisis Absa has had to deliver uninterrupted banking services to our customers. The immediate need was to ensure that the closure of a branch or an ATM in an area, did not equate to eliminating access to banking. We have been hard at work restoring branch and ATM operations that were impacted in parts of South Africa,” says Bongiwe Gangeni, Deputy Chief…
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) will implement tax relief measures in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and recent civil unrest. At the weekend, the revenue collector said the relief measures, which were announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa a week ago, are to assist affected and tax compliant businesses to recover and ensure livelihoods for their employees. “SARS will implement these tax relief measures because compliant taxpayers have paid their fair share of tax, making it possible for the government to provide such a temporary safety net in a time of extreme difficulty,” SARS said in a statement. SARS…
Capitec clients can now get cash back on their purchases at Dis-Chem and Baby City by simply paying with their Capitec Debit or Credit card. A benefit that can collectively save their clients that shop there over R25 million per year. The 2% cash back will automatically be paid monthly into their free Capitec Live Better Savings Account, which offers a percent higher interest rate than clients earn on their main transactional account. Francois Viviers, executive of Marketing and Communications at Capitec says “Research shows us that people are tired of traditional rewards programs that require you to jump through…
This week the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA) came to an agreement with South Africa’s banks that Saswitch fee, a fee that customers pay for using other banks’ ATMs, will be waived for a period of two months with effect from 1st August 2021. This is in response to the recent civil unrest where some ATMs in Gauteng and KwaZulu -Natal were damaged and are currently not available for use. Kabelo Makeke, Head of Consumer and High Net Worth clients South Africa says, “We understand that some of our clients are adversely affected by the unavailability of the damaged…