{"id":865714,"date":"2026-07-08T09:51:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=865714"},"modified":"2026-07-08T09:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T07:51:34","slug":"south-africa-loses-its-crown-to-new-competitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/865714\/south-africa-loses-its-crown-to-new-competitors\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa loses its crown to new competitors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Africa’s financial services sector is keeping pace with its global peers, but South Africa is not the top-performing market on the continent, with Tanzania and Kenya outperforming it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the 2026 Future of Finance report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), African financial services groups delivered total shareholder returns (TSR) of 24%, ahead of the global average of 23%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa still has a while to catch up to its Eurozone peers (37%), Japan and South Korea (37%), Europe non-Eurozone (35%), and Canada (28%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the most important findings in the report is that financial institutions were the top-performing sector globally in 2025 in terms of value creation,” said BCG Johannesburg’s Tijsbert Creemers-Chaturvedi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“African institutions have kept pace with the global average, which signals a strong basis for future growth, even if some developed markets remain ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the data over the last three years, Creemers-Chaturvedi said the leading business models are clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes digital banks, universal banks with strong corporate and investment banking platforms, and specialised banks, which have generated the highest returns, pointing to a focus on more scalable models. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa has long been recognised as the most advanced financial system on the African continent, but the BCG report shows that the best returns actually come from two other markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tanzania had a TSR of 59% between 2022 and 2025, making it the standout performer on the continent. Kenya followed at 36%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BCG Casablanca’s Othman Omary said that this is due to the growing maturity of financial services institutions across the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, South Africa represents a more mature and stable market and has a TSR in line with the continental average of 24%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Tanzania and Kenya, South Africa’s performance has been more stable, with BCG noting an opportunity for further growth through innovation and new business models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Move beyond traditional banking<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Omary noted that Kenya demonstrates the growing link between financial performance and fintech innovation, with mobile money and digital ecosystems enabling broader growth in financial services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BCG said that Africa continues to be one of the most dynamic fintech environments globally, highlighting that platforms like M-PESA in Kenya can scale rapidly and expand financial access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, South Africa’s Vodacom jointly owns M-PESA with Kenyan telecommunications operator Safaricom via a joint venture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vodacom also recently increased its own stake in Safaricom from 35% to 55%, after acquiring shares from the Kenyan Government and Vodafone in a R35 billion deal. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BCG added that other companies in Africa, including Flutterwave, Paystack, Chipper and Wave, are building payments infrastructure and enabling cross-border commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BCG’s Global Fintech Report found that the Middle East and Africa fintech market grew by around 20% in 2025, supported by mobile money, digital wallets, and expanding financial inclusion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That report also noted that the opportunity for growth remains in business-to-business financial services, lending, and insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BCG added that cross-border payments represent a major opportunity, as fintech players are addressing inefficiencies in intra-African and international transactions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that this will enable faster, lower-cost payment flows for businesses and consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Africa outperformed the global average on TSR, BCG said that the underlying drivers highlight untapped opportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that structural profitability gains have been more limited than in developed markets, with margins under pressure and slower productivity improvements, pointing to upside potential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe it is an imperative for banks to sharpen their focus on a small number of CEO-owned AI bets and execute them with discipline,” said Creemers-Chaturvedi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For African financial institutions, this presents a clear opportunity to build on strong performance by accelerating innovation, scaling fintech ecosystems and embedding AI into core operations.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study from the Boston Consulting Group notes that South Africa trails Eastern African markets for shareholder returns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":858284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2074763425754837365","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[2067],"class_list":["post-865714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-boston-consulting-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865714"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865731,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865714\/revisions\/865731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}