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Motsepe’s TymeBank plans new salary advance products

Samuel Mungadze
By Samuel Mungadze, Africa editor
Johannesburg, 14 Sept 2021
Dr Patrice Motsepe shakes hands with ZCC leader Bishop Dr Barnabas Lekganyane.
Dr Patrice Motsepe shakes hands with ZCC leader Bishop Dr Barnabas Lekganyane.

Digital bank TymeBank is set to introduce new salary advance products in the new financial year, as the bank seeks to diversify its client base.

Salary advance products include the bank agreeing to give clients a portion, or the entirety, of a future salary before the usual payday.

TymeBank has now set its sights on this market and also wants to get existing products to scale and implement various measures to lure new customers.

The bank is owned by African Rainbow Capital (ARC), the investment holding company founded by business mogul Dr Patrice Motsepe.

It has released its financial results for year ended 30 June, saying it is focused on acquiring clients who want to benefit from lower banking costs, as well as improved customer experience.

The digital bank has successfully on-boarded 3.45 million customers in over two years since launching and is embarking on a growth path. This includes signing up over nine million Zionist Christian Church (ZCC) members, after the initial attempt last year was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

TymeBank and the ZCC initially penned a deal last year targeting to onboard members of Africa’s largest church, but this was derailed when government implemented lockdown measures.

ARC said today that this process should gain momentum once preventative COVID-19 measures are relaxed and it is reasonably safe to resume activities to onboard church members.

According to ARC, TymeBank has enhanced its value proposition to consumers by adding insurance, as well as a buy-now-pay-later product called MoreTyme.

“In the new financial year, the business will seek to get key existing products to scale, introduce new salary advance products, and implement various measures to diversify its customer profile.

“The progress on strategy implementation to date, combined with the additional capital that has been injected up to 30 June 2021, results in the company’s share in the fair value of TymeBank amounting to R1 173 million at 30 June 2021.”

TymeBank has also set its sights beyond SA’s borders. It entered the Philippines market after partnering with investors that include Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by London-based Apis Partners, and JG Summit Holdings, one of the largest investment conglomerates in the Philippines, owned by the Gokongwei family.

Resilient Rain

In the year under review, ARC’s telecommunications investments in Rain continued to surpass expectations in terms of performance. The company says the data-only mobile network managed to sustain its high level of customer growth throughout the reporting period.

“It exceeded its subscriber targets in both the 4G and 5G market. A key focus area of Rain remains to improve its customer experience and it continues to make progress in addressing customer queries and complaints. The business has been experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand for its products and services. Rain is expected to fully participate in the upcoming government-initiated spectrum auction.”

Further, the investment company says, in this regard it should be noted that a modest capital raise from Rain's shareholders is in progress.

“The company's share in the value of the investment in Rain increased from R3 111 million at 30 June 2020 to R3 314 million at 30 June 2021, as a result of R56 million additional investment and a fair value gain of R147 million over the year,” says ARC.

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