Tag: affordability

Valentine’s Day is around the corner and it’s a special day to celebrate and show love to our loved ones. As rewarding spoiling your loved ones may be, it doesn’t mean you should break the bank, more so if you didn’t budget and plan for it.

A rapidly shifting investment landscape, marked by pronounced volatility on a global scale, has made it challenging for investors to navigate some challenging terrains. These challenges are exacerbated for South African investors by domestic issues like load shedding, the current political climate, the shrinking bourse, and soaring inflation, all of which have made investors wary of where they place their hard-earned money.

Affordability is a prime concern for many when it comes to choosing the right medical aid plan. Medical inflation consistently outpaces general inflation, so year after year employees need to balance coverage and cost.

There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding when it comes to medical aid versus medical insurance, and where hospital plans fit in, and this can make it difficult to decide what the best solution is to meet your needs. The reality is that they are not the same, and you cannot actually compare them, as they offer completely different benefits and serve different purposes.

Since emerging from the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, various industries across Africa have rebounded relatively well after having to undergo a process of reinvention. Across the continent, key multibillion dollar industries are navigating new challenges to meet consumer needs and retain a strong customer base. For Africa’s entertainment and media (E&M) industry, 2022 was a challenging year.

We live in a time of great change, fuelled by rapid growth and unprecedented access to technology. Even Artificial Intelligence (AI), which seemed like science fiction just a couple decades ago, is now accessible in the palm of your hand through applications like ChatGPT for content creation, or Midjourney for image generation.

With its two-tiered, highly unequal healthcare system, only 14.86% of South Africa’s population can currently afford private healthcare, and rising costs are making it difficult for many to keep paying their monthly medical aid premiums.

Whether or not South Africa will experience a buyer’s or seller's market for property in 2024 is challenging to predict, but several factors point towards a potential buyer’s market for some time to come. The economy is expected to remain weak, which will reduce the number of prospective homebuyers due to affordability constraints.

The cabinet approved a new state-owned enterprise (SOE) plan, which will lays the basis for private equity investment in state companies and listings on the stock exchange. It has already stirred significant debate and discussion – and rightly so, because full or partial privatisation by countries around the world has been met with mixed success.

The 2023 Agricultural Insurance Pulse Report indicates global hunger and food insecurity is on the rise with the number of undernourished people estimated to have increased up to 828 million in 2021. Africa, unfortunately, makes up a large percentage with 57.9% of the population exposed to moderate or severe food insecurity.