South Africa News Archives - Page 34 of 72

22Dec

By Catherine WijnbergNo Comments

South Africa News, Startups

Why the sector is fertile ground for South African entrepreneurs

By Catherine Wijnberg, CEO of Fetola South Africa needs entrepreneurs to reverse our shrinking economy and high unemployment rate. And while they face numerous barriers in almost every sector, there is one industry that offers them the key to success: The circular economy. Only about 1% of micro-enterprises[1] in South Africa, starting with one to five employees, will grow to employ more than 10 people. This means most entrepreneurs will face so many barriers they will make little meaningful difference to unemployment in the county. But this is not the case within the circular economy. The circular economy consists of businesses that focus on eliminating waste. Circular thinking goes beyond the reduce, reuse and recycle focus in the green sector to design out waste altogether. It promo...

19Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, South Africa News, Tech

Payment fraud – top five scams to look out for

The truth is, all businesses are at risk of being scammed at some point, and just one incident can cost a company millions of Rand. Ryan Mer, CEO, eftsure Africa, a Know Your Payee™ (KYP) platform provider, says that fraudsters are constantly finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities and attack corporate payment systems and it’s critical that we all work together and share information to remain one step ahead of scammers. Accounts payable fraud is one of the most damaging and is common in companies large and small, targeting the department responsible for paying suppliers and other vendors. A report from JP Morgan found that 81% (source) of organisations were hit with payment fraud in 2019, and only a relatively small portion of losses are recovered because the scam worked so well. He...

17Dec

By Gil SperlingNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News

There are lessons in the US iBuyer Bubble Burst for the South African property market

By Gil Sperling, Co-CEO & Co-Founder: Flow The US housing market suffered a seismic shock last week when leading property listings portal Zillow exited its iBuying business after a $1 billion loss over the course of three years – and there are lessons in the move for the South African market. iBuying has been a growing trend over the course of the last three years, with companies like Zillow harnessing their knowledge of hundreds of millions of American homes and the areas in which they were situated and leveraging that data to make house flipping profitable at scale. iBuyers move quickly and offer home owners premium pricing, based on their predictions for the supply and state of the area – a real win for the owners in a globally-depressed economic climate. It turns out that Zillow...

17Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, South Africa News

Financial Inclusion across Africa starts here

Africa’s first digital in-store lay-by app is aiming to create financial inclusion throughout the continent – starting in South Africa. Local fintech startup LayUp is taking the lay-by process into the 21st century - for merchants and consumers - with a mobile app and rollout of a terminal app via payment & merchant solutions provider Dashpay, which will make the app accessible to millions of potential customers at thousands of POS points, nationwide. Nearly 24% of adults in South Africa are unbanked and R12bn in cash is believed to be held outside of the banking system. COVID-19 related lockdowns have sent unemployment figures soaring to an estimated 7.6 million, meaning that nearly 30 million people are locked out of the South African economy. More people are being forced to turn to...

12Dec

By Darryl BernsteinNo Comments

Main, South Africa News

ESG obligations leading to the risk of increased litigation for African businesses

By Darryl Bernstein, Partner and Head of the Dispute Resolution Practice at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg As African businesses begin to recover and build the resilience needed to successfully navigate COVID-19 disruption, a focus on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) strategies is proving to be essential for long-term success. In order to stay competitive, organisations based in Africa are engaging meaningfully with ESG to build robust sustainability strategies that meet stakeholder expectations and enable compliance with global and domestic mandatory and voluntary ESG standards and codes. ESG encompasses a broad range of issues across the spectrum of Environmental (climate change, biodiversity, waste, water and resource use, pollution), Social (human rights, labour practices, H...

9Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Tech

Digital identity is a crucial business requirement post-Covid

It is well-known that the Covid-pandemic has forced change in many industries and driven digitalisation at a pace faster than anyone could have anticipated, but it has happened at the cost of robust security and digital authentication. The ramifications of this could be felt soon as it becomes increasingly difficult to know whether the person on the other end of a digital transaction is legitimate and authenticated. Juniper Research in its 2020-2025 Digital Identity Market Summary estimates that digital identity apps will exceed 6,2 billion by 2025 from a 2020 base of 1 billion. South Africa, together with most other countries, is on an aggressive growth path towards digital authentication and digital recognition maturity. Entrepreneur and digital, remote biometric authentication ...

9Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, South Africa News

2021: The year of the online payment

As the world moved indoors two years ago, the online payment space flourished. These are the biggest developments in 2021, and a brief look ahead. This year, South Africans embraced e-commerce, mobile commerce and digital payments like never before - all four major banks have seen massive increases in these payment methods since the start of the pandemic. Absa, for one, says 66% of people now prefer electronic payments over cash. “This trend will only increase in the coming years with more convenient solutions that meet the customer on the platforms of their choice like WhatsApp for example,” says Andrew Springate, CEO of technology and financial gateway service provider PAYM8. To prepare for the increased volume, South Africa is busily setting up for success. Three development...

9Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Rethinking the norm in the built environment

Hanife Ymer, Head of Sustainability at JLL (Middle East and Africa) joined the Tétris Design and Build South Africa team at the Annual GBCSA Green Building Convention in Cape Town in November to give a talk on ‘How Sustainability is the Now, not the Later’. These are her thoughts. This year’s COP26 – the United Nations Climate Change Conference – saw negotiators in Glasgow thrash out ideas on how to rein in catastrophic levels of global warming. Despite the Paris Agreement adopted at COP21 in 2015 that set a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, on the current trajectory, the UN is predicting a rise of 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels before the end of the century, which will have detrimental impacts. However, it’s not all bad. There is so much to celebrate since...

7Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News, Startups

South African Proptech Flow Expands Reach Into Australia

API platform connecting real estate agents and social media users leverages significant growth on the continent to target global property market Flow, a proptech startup that enables real estate agents and developers to seamlessly advertise properties on social media, has announced that following consolidated growth in South Africa the company is launching in Australia. Flow’s move comes at a time when African proptechs are building scalable solutions with application beyond the continent more frequently than ever before, with strong reception from global markets seeing the viability of home-grown African businesses. Boasting 90,000 agents and a housing market value of $9 trillion, Australia offers a latent opportunity for Flow to change the way that people find places to live and wo...

7Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

Internal fraud – who commits it and why

International Fraud Awareness Week is taking place from 14-20 November, highlighting an increasing problem that organisations around the world are facing. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), businesses lose around 5% of their annual revenue globally due to fraudulent behaviour, which experts estimate amounts to a total annual loss around the world of $3.7 trillion. Fraud can hit organisations from various angles, and even though cybercrime and external fraud attacks are a huge risk, more often than many companies realise it is perpetrated from within. In fact, the Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey showed that 41% of economic crimes in South Africa were committed by employees, compared to only 36% by external fraudsters and 21% a collusion between the t...