Stokvel breaks glass ceiling
WHEN Nthabeleng Likotsi founded the Young Women in Business Network (YWBN) in 2009, little did she realise her stokvel-modelled investment initiative would lead to the establishment of the first black women-run corporative-banking financial institution (CFI) in South Africa.
The YWBN is a broad-based investment company run by professionals, although men are welcome as members and shareholders, says founder and managing director Likotsi, also a Masters graduate from the Wits Business School.
It started out as an informal stokvel, but after making many inroads, Likotsi and her team have turned the institution into a CFI, a bank catering for black professionals, business start-ups, entrepreneurs and small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs).
Likotsi says it was mind-boggling to learn black people were making R44-billion in desposable cash through stokvels seven years ago. Today, they are raking in more than R50-billion yearly.
It was a case of channelling the stokvel money into an investment institution. As black entrepreneurs, we felt this was another way of achieving wealth ownership goals.”
Three years after its establishment, YWBN acquired its first stake as a shareholder in Joburg-based logistics company, Namlog, with shares bought from using the stokvel-inspired rotating credit and savings scheme.
It was only in 2014, after visiting Switzerland as part of the South African women in business delegation, that establishing a black-owned bank became a possibility, Likotsi says
After a chance meeting with a woman at the conference, the world of co-operative banking dawned on me. When I returned home, I researched on the feasibility of starting the bank.”
Likotsi, 32, says it s founded on the principles of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Act.
Former president Mbeki, as pioneer of the BBBEE Act, wanted us to empower ourselves using the Act as a stepping stone for creating wealth that would be in the hands of black people,” she says.
There is too much red tape in the requirements for an institution like ours to become a commercial bank. Firstly, we do not have collateral, but there are also a number of stringent requirements that we do not meet.”
On December 16, 2014, members met for their first annual general meeting. On September 3, 2015, the YWBN registered with the Corporative Bank Development Agency as a financial institution, and on December 2, 2015, they got their banking licence with 208 shareholders.
To join the YWBN CFI bank, each member pays a once-off deposit and shareholding capital fee of R10 000, an annual membership fee of R500, and they are obliged to invest R1 000 every month.
For more information, contact the YWBN on their website: www.ywbn.co.za or e-mail nthabeleng@ywbn.co.za