South Africans Still Prefer Cash Despite Growth in Banking Sector

South Africa is one of the countries with a growing banking sector. The country is the largest in the African continent. In 2021, the combined 1 capital of the sector reached over $34.4 billion. With the top five banks in the country were amongst the ten largest African banks in terms of asset value in the same year. The total assets of the banking sector represented around 88 percent of the South African GDP in 2020.

Even with all the best banks available to South Africans, including the fintech sector offering unbanked, low-income earners, South Africans still prefer cash.

iKhokha chief product officer Graeme Cumming, explained why South Africans still prefer cash, “Cash is flexible, but we’re very passionate about moving people away from it considering how inefficient and unsafe it can be.”

According to TechCentral, “Another factor that limits the fluid exchange of digital currency is the cost of transactions. Although charges have come down significantly in recent years, customer experience of high charges in the past has created a degree of mistrust in the financial system among some people.”

“Many of our customers have previously been excluded from the financial services industry by design. Our challenge is in demonstrating to customers that we are on their side and that we can be trusted,” Greg Illgner, chief strategy officer at TymeBank said.