Despite their generally weakened financial positions, several African governments are once again flirting with the idea of establishing dedicated SME banks. But is creating dedicated ‘banks’ for SMEs the right strategy?

On behalf of the CEOs’ Initiative, Standard Bank asked Genesis Analytics to prepare a joint Action Plan to bring business and government together to address the decline of the Vaal Region and prevent it from becoming the “rust belt” of South Africa. Last week, the CEO Initiative delivered the report and regeneration action plan to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni. 

When a market has adopted a payment standard, a huge marketing effort is required to shift consumer behaviour. Can mVisa tip the scale of retail payments back in favour of Kenyan banks? Genesis associate Tom Magara looks at the experience of mVisa.

The Portfolio Committee for Economic Development approved further amendments to the SA Competition Amendment Bill this week. Our Competition and Regulatory Economics practice has participated closely in the debates over the Bill. The Bill will now be placed before the National Assembly for a vote before heading to the National Council of Provinces.

In the next 20 years, the number of people aged 15-24 in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by a 100 million. Genesis works in many of the critical areas in which the prospects for this generation of young people will be determined, including health, agriculture, communications, financial services and youth economic empowerment. This newsletter presents some of our current work. 

MERL Tech, which has been successful in London and DC, came to Jozi for the first time. Its purpose was to bring together development practitioners at the intersection of M&E and technology to share and learn how we can, together, tackle the fourth industrial revolution and use technology to do our jobs better.

Richard Ketley asks whether in all the hype about fintech we have lost track of the importance of finding ways to support mobile network operators to establish the infrastructure required for mobile money and to encourage regulators to balance the reward for investment in mobile money while preventing excessive pricing. 

Genesis has proposed a number of changes to the economic provisions in the SA Competition Amendment Bill to avoid the potentially large negative unintended consequences of the current Bill, while still achieving the objective of assisting SMEs and firms owned/controlled by historically disadvantaged persons to participate in the economy. 

Gig work is gradually changing how Kenya’s workforce accesses jobs, and shifting the access of work opportunities from informal to digital platforms. But where does it leave 15-34 year-olds, who account for 84% of the unemployed in Kenya?

Stephan Malherbe, CEO of Genesis Analytics and co-director of South Africa in the Digital Age (SADA), attended the 2019 World Economic Forum in Cape Town to participate in a panel on the impact of the 4IR on South Africa. This is an opinion piece he wrote before the event.

Our Shared Value and Impact practice works where markets, government and society collide. As the world searches for a more inclusive capitalism, the best companies are able to articulate their social purpose, measure social impact, use commercial models to create shared value, contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, and navigate a robust yet constructive relationship with the state.

We work with our clients to develop solutions aimed at improving the health of populations throughout sub-Saharan Africa. We provide experts with decades of experience in the design, implementation, costing and evaluation of health programmes and strengthening of health systems.

Zimbabwe has faced headwinds over the past decade resulting in a collapse of the economy. Following the political transition of November 2017, the new government requested the African Development Bank to update the 2011 Zimbabwe Infrastructure Flagship Report, so as to aid in investment planning as part of the vision 2030

Genesis was commissioned by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a part of the World Bank, to study the payments infrastructure in East Africa in order to understand how it may facilitate an increasingly integrated regional financial services market.

We help leading financial institutions address their challenges, unlock value for their stakeholders and develop strategies to compete in a fast-changing sector.

Behavioural economics is effective at driving behaviour change and is low cost. It has not been used to drive uptake of medical male circumcision (MMC) services in South Africa though. Read our policy brief.