Author: Zunaid Miya

Financial inclusion is severely skewed in South Africa, with higher income groups having more access to a range of financial services such as bank and savings accounts, loans, and insurance products. Those who are financially excluded have more difficulty accumulating wealth – further deepening this divide. But there are ways of overcoming this serious problem. Some are excluded by circumstance. Undocumented migrants are excluded by regulations such as FICA, while bigger financial institutions don’t accept asylum documents or foreign passports. Others are excluded by choice. Some don’t want to be part of the formal banking system; others have a bad…