By Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 28 2005 (IPS)

South Africa’s microfinance institutions face stiff competition from loan sharks who prey on the vulnerable, especially in the townships where a majority of the country’s poor live, say microfinance experts.

“You still find loan sharks in the townships. They charge ridiculous rates like 100 percent a week. But a lot is being done to address it,” asserts Hennie Ferriera, chief executive officer of the Pretoria-based Micro Finance South Africa.

The moneylenders thrive on poverty and illiteracy. Forty percent of South Africa’s population are poor. People take loans for everything, even a drink at the shabeen (unlicensed drinking place) in the township, according to Ferriera.

“You go to have a drink in a shabeen à You run out of money and request for a loan. They give you at 100 percent a week. If you request for R100 (15 dollars) you pay back R200 (30 dollars),” he explains.

South Africa’s microfinance institutions have been accused of lending money only to the working class and small-scale business people.

Says Mike Gumede, a hawker in Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial hub, who failed to secure a loan, “They must open up to the poor. Those who demonstrate the ability to repay the loan always stand a better chance to getting a loan.”

Gumede’s views are common in South Africa. For example, a domestic, who earns a minimum wage of 125 dollars a month, finds it hard to get a loan. According to FinScope 2005, a national household survey of financial services, needs and usage, only 6 percent of South Africans borrow money to start a business. A whopping 13 percent borrow to buy food.

As part of its strategy to instil financial discipline into the poor, South Africa’s institutions in 2005 introduced a new bank account called Mzansi for low-income earners and those living beyond the reach of banking services. Mzansi, a colloquial South African expression for ‘south’, seeks to encourage savings and bring the country’s 16.5 million unbanked individualsùalmost half the country’s adult populationùinto the official banking system.

Since then, the number of bank account holders has risen by 4 percent, or 500,000 new accounts, according to FinScope. The rise in the number of bank accounts is attributed to Mzansi.

But economists warn that Mazansi needs fine-tuning in order to make it more viable and sustainable.

“My expectation is that it will expand then decline unless the banks expand the functionality of their services,” Gerhard Coetzee, director of the Centre for Microfinance at the University of Pretoria, told IPS in a telephone interview.

”But I see a healthy market in the future,” he adds.

One of the major challenges facing the industry is consumer education. “The challenge is to put a lot of effort in consumer education,” Coetzee says. “If people know what their rights are, they will be protected. If they don’t, they will be exploited.”

Consumer education aside, the industry is also grappling with the negative perception of micro-lenders.

In its survey, FinScope says it found that 30 percent of South Africans don’t understand how micro-lenders work. Seventeen percent complain of too much credit and too high service fees. And 54 percent say they never heard of Mzansi.

“Consumer education is a matter of national interest. It must be driven like the lifeline AIDS campaign,” economist Ferriera says. ”It’s a serious matter.”

Also keen on encouraging loans to the poor is the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). To date the fund has provided 8.799 billion dollars in financing 695 projects and programmes worldwide. In 2004, 82 of IFAD’s 192 projects were in Africa, not including North African countries.

In November, IFAD organised a microfinance workshop for east and southern African journalists in Johannesburg. In her paper, IFAD’s Farhana Haque Rahman said: “A loan as little as 50 dollars can give poor people a chance to set up their own small business, and possibly create more jobs. It can also help secure a family’s food supply, buy medicine and pay for children’s education.”

In South Africa, the size of the microfinance industry is estimated at about 3.6 billion dollars, which benefits about 8 million people or more, according to Ferriera.

“There is room for growth,” he adds. “India, Bangladesh and Uganda have managed to advance loans to the poor. This must also be done in South Africa.”

He calls for reform in the industry. “There’s not enough incentive to back up collateral by government for people wanting to advance support in the industry,” he explains.

A new act passed by parliament this month will come into effect in 2006.It will monitor and restore some order in the industry.

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