Tag: township

With an estimated 150,000 micro merchants in townships, peri urban areas and rural areas, digitalising small and informal merchants could create significant economic spinoffs for underserved and excluded communities across the nation. Generating R178 billion in annual sales, merchants serve around 80% of the population. These merchants are often excluded from the financial and technology tools that larger retailers take for granted, restricting them from reaching their full potential.

Why do so many South Africans prefer taking the law into their own hands to relying on the police? Why are those who do so often cheered or sympathised with? Of the unprecedented 27 000 recorded murders in South Africa in 2022, at least 1 894 – or 7 per cent – were attributed to mob justice and vigilantism, more than double the number from five years before.

Abigail Makhubele Absa Business Banking and Dr Ivor Blumenthal ArkKonsult discuss how the establishment of informal businesses has been driven by necessity for economic survival.

The informal business sector is the next great frontier of Africa and it is undergoing an economic revolution – a new world of small people doing big things, transforming the continent. Prepare for this new generation, prepare for the Afripolitan Generation.

During the first quarter of 2018, South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 2,2% according to Stats SA. This low growth trap followed a period of cautious optimism and highlights the need for creative thinking from all role players in the economy.