COMPETITOR BRAND ACTIVITY
In February and March, many brands released their financial results, each showing favourable financial performance despite the economic headwinds in South Africa and globally. OUTsurance has even decided to expand its insurance business to Ireland. While Momentum Metropolitan announced an increase in dividends and a R500m share buy-back to increase shareholder value.
Nedbank launched Chow Town, a financial education game aimed at tweens, to help them build entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy. Capitec promoted its WhatsApp MoneyUp Chat which aims to provide accessible and free financial education through its chatbot, Moola.
COMPETITOR PRODUCT ACTIVITY
FNB has taken the reins in March by launching several credit solutions and added functionality to cater to a broad range of needs. This includes credit cards with a low credit limit to help those wanting to build a credit record, loans for those wanting to install a solar system, and solar products and student loans conveniently available on its app.
Discovery made some changes to its Vitality rewards programme, while Dischem launched its ‘extra’rewards programme providing additional benefits to its Health policyholders. Additionally, Discovery has partnered with Clicks and Auto & General to launch Flexicare, a private health insurance product targeted at the mass market, with premiums starting from R435 per month.
COMPETITOR INDUSTRY ACTIVITY
Since the declaration of State of Disaster in response to the energy crisis and the Budget Speech in February, Eskom and the various State-Owned Enterprises have been in the spotlight. The SOEs have been failing since 2012 and has cost the government R331.2 billion between 2014 and 2023, becoming fiscal burdens, increasing fiscal risk to unacceptable levels.
Additionally, since the release of the Quarterly Labour force survey in February, Trade Unions have been very active, engaging in a public sector strike led by NEHAWU and supported by POPCRU, SAPU, DENOSA, NUPSAW and SAMATU for a 10% wage increase. Additionally, SAFTU which contains 24 trade union affiliates spanning over several sectors joined the EFF on its National Shutdown on 20 March 2023, which aimed to highlight South Africa’s socio-economic issues, including load shedding.
