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Community


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Community blog

Read our latest news and views and get to know us better

We’re growing a culture of savings through long-held traditions
Boitumelo
Community Coordinator

In December 2017, Aretshepane Burial Society in Tembisa was selected as the winner of Standard Bank’s Savers’ Draw Competition and awarded R50 000. Why? Because we’re not only focused on our bottom line, but also our role in bettering society. Since 2017, we’ve been celebrating and rewarding society schemes - or stokvels throughout the country that maintain a healthy account balance.

Mike Ramolahlehi, Manager: Savings Portfolio (PBB) at Standard Bank, believes South Africa’s economic success depends, to a large extent, on the nation’s saving and investment practices.

 

This is why the bank invests in all communities in a customer-centric fashion, creating financial solutions that are easy to understand and use, and are geared towards getting our customers to their ‘nexts’.

Stokvels have always been a popular method of saving among South Africans living in townships and rural areas, often coming to the rescue when unforeseen financial challenges arise. As the bank that drives Africa’s growth, we’re committed to empowering township economies by cultivating a savings culture within the stokvels market; we launched the Society Schemes Savers’ Draw Competition to encourage savings. Every month, a group account is selected and awarded R5 000 for maintaining a healthy account balance. Once a year, an extremely lucky society scheme wins R50 000 for the same reason.

 

Africans have always had a solutions-driven culture. Now that stokvels have been formalised and made mainstream with a variety of bank products, more and more people, even in “poverty-stricken communities” are contributing positively towards the development of township economies, thus invigorating the market and making a sound and meaningful contribution to the greater South African economy.

 

“Over the years, we have learnt that the practice of saving and investing is a means of empowering ourselves as women,” says Lisbeth Motseo from December’s winning society scheme; Aretshepane Burial Society has 16 committed members and was established only two years ago. “Our stokvel has served as a reminder that together we can achieve what we cannot always achieve alone.”

Throughout this year, Standard Bank will continue investing in communities, moving Africa forward.

For more information on Standard Bank’s Society Scheme service offering, visit our website.