Start saving with a top-up bond
With South Africa’s high cost of living making it difficult for people to get through the month, let alone save money, the government has launched a top-up bond to help low-income citizens invest the money they have and save over a long term.
National Treasury launched the RSA Retail Savings Top-up Bond on 1 April 2022 to enable lowincome citizens to access investment opportunities that they couldn’t afford in the past.
While a big lump sum of money is usually required when opening an investment, this is not the case with the new top-up bond. Anyone with R500 can invest, start saving money and grow their balance with the interest (currently 9.25%) they will receive.
While most other investments do not allow people to add funds to their current investment, the RSA Retail Savings Top-up Bond does. As long as the amount is R100 or more, you can add to your investment at any time over the three-year investment period.
To help build and maintain a culture of saving in South Africa, National Treasury launched
RSA Retail Savings Bonds in 2004. While they soon became a popular way for people to save money over the long term, they did not appeal to youth or lowincome households who didn’t have a lump sum to invest.
This challenge became even harder as a result of COVID-19, as people had even less to invest. As a result, those who tried to save did so via stokvels, fixed deposit savings accounts and good oldfashioned penny-pinching.
With many people part of stokvels, government decided to allow informal groups, such as stokvels, to place their pooled savings into a top-up bond, and thus earn interest on their money.
The top-up bond is also more flexible, as investors can switch their top-up bond to a fixed rate or inflation-linked bond if they want to.
Since the launch in April 2022, 932 people have invested in the government’s new top-up bond. Together, the value of their investments is
R24.1 million.
For more information or to invest, call 012 315 5888 or visit RSA Retail Saving Bonds' website at https://secure.rsaretailbonds.gov.za. Informal groups can download the relevant forms from the website. Alternatively, send your questions to queries@rsaretailbonds.gov.za.