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Capitec shrugs off COVID-19 bump, onboards 300 hires

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 27 Jul 2021

Capitec Bank is shrugging off the COVID-19 impact, announcing today it is adding 300 new employees.

The bank is hiring to fill various positions, ranging from jobs for graduates, senior professionals, business analysts, developers, analyst developers, data engineers and scientists, as well as business intelligence analysts, among others.

The hiring spree comes as many companies are shedding jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and incessant low economic growth.

For Capitec, it says, it has experienced significant growth in recent months, buoyed by its digital offerings, which necessitated the need for new hires.

“We’re rapidly growing our team,” says Gerrie Fourie, CEO of Capitec Bank. “South Africa’s response to our simple, transparent and affordable banking solution has been overwhelmingly positive. We now have over 16.3 million clients. They span across a diverse set of income groups, ages and cultures; it’s been incredibly encouraging.

“But we’ve only just begun and much work still lies ahead. We continue to challenge the norms to ensure our clients live better.”

Additionally, the bank says it now has over 8.8 million digital banking clients and it doesn’t see digitalisation as a threat to employment, but as a catalyst in strengthening its specialist employee force.

Fourie explains: “South Africa is a unique environment and while our digital offering is growing at an immense pace, we recognise that our over 840 branches are incredibly important. Many South Africans still need or prefer face-to-face interaction. We’ve used technology to remove mundane tasks from branches, allowing our employees to focus on delivering world-class personalised service.

“At the same time, we’ve bolstered our digital offering. The team launched seven new digital products in the last 12 months, helping our clients to bank better during the pandemic. These include a fully digital account opening process made possible by a selfie, which includes card delivery, in-app scan-to-pay functionality, as well as our virtual card, among others. And there are still many more on the way.”

According to Fourie, the pandemic has led people to rethink every aspect of their lives, including their careers.

“Building the bank of the future is not only an exciting vision, but means our employees get to work with industry-leading technology and tools. Our working environment is structured to allow employees to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our executive management team, enabling them to gain insight and contribute to the business strategy.

“The high-growth environment also creates significant opportunities for Capitec employees. We’ve granted over 1 100 internal appointments over the past 12 months and over 290 bursaries to further develop our employees, helping them to grasp opportunities within the business as we grow.”

Capitec has steadily increased its workforce since its inception 20 years ago; starting with a handful of employees, the bank now has a staff complement of over 15 000. 

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