At Genesis, which turned 20 this year, we are dedicating our next decade to the future of young Africans. These young people, measuring around 500 million over time, will build their lives in a hyper-technological world whilst managing the impact of climate change. 

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. 

Much has been written about the growth of the cashless economy, but new product innovations are giving South African consumers fewer and fewer reasons to open or maintain a bank account. Cash, it seems, is making a comeback.

Rapid urbanisation and industrial growth are exacerbating demand for water but also generating increased volumes of wastewater/effluent that can be re-used by industry. 

Digital technology is transforming economies and the world of work in profound ways. Traditional jobs are being transformed while new forms of work are being created. But is South Africa preparing young people to find employment in the fourth industrial revolution?