Johannesburg - Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH) and Wizzit Bank, a division of the South African Bank of Athens Limited, have launched a 50/50 joint venture to provide banking services to the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN).
The joint venture - Wizzit Platinum - will deliver full-feature transactional bank accounts to the approximate 300 000 strong, largely unbanked, community based primarily in the North West province.
RBH is responsible for the management and development of the commercial assets of the Royal Bafokeng Nation. This joint venture with Wizzit is the company's second financial services partnership, the first being its 10% stake in Zurich Financial Services Group secured in 2005.
RBH has also been in the news recently for its July 2008 announcement that it was to acquire a strategic stake in Vodacom South Africa as part of Vodacom's R7.5bn broad-based black economic empowerment transaction.
Wizzit, launched in 2005, has pioneered technology that enables people to become banked just by having a cellphone, which has proven to be one of the cheapest and most effective ways of providing banking facilities to the unbanked and under-banked people of South Africa.
"Over 70% of the RBN community is unbanked and does not have access to the means or resources to open a bank account with one of the major banks," says Niall Carroll, chief executive of RBH.
"We identified that easy access to affordable banking facilities was one major area that would be extremely beneficial and convenient for the community. This joint venture - by placing a high level of importance on the need for bank accounts and financial literacy - is giving the community the tools to become true economic citizens in both the Royal Bafokeng Nation and throughout South Africa."
Matthews Mokathedi, a local resident, has been appointed as general manager for the joint venture and will be responsible for rolling out the Wizzit accounts into the community.
Mutsa Sibanda, managing director of Wizzit Bank, says that this partnership will benefit the local RBN community, as many of them rely on alternative or informal methods of transferring money between family members or paying for goods - particularly those that work far away.
These methods, he says, which include sending money home via taxi drivers or friends, are not necessarily reliable, quick or cost effective.
"Using cellphones, which are the most pervasive communications tool in the world, even in rural areas, account holders will have unhindered access to their money - with the freedom to transfer money to family members and pay for goods via cellphone money transfer, regardless of who they bank with," Sibanda says.
The RBN owns 1 200km² of land that contains part of the world-renowned Bushveld Complex, the richest known reserve of platinum group metals and chrome in the world. The RBN leases portions of this land to, or conducts joint mining operations with, some of the world's largest mining companies.
The RBN's long-term vision for addressing the challenges faced by the Bafokeng people is to create opportunities for them to become self-sufficient participants in the regional and national economy by the end of year 2020.
"Investing in financial services will play a big part in our ability to deliver on those goals," says Carroll.
