Capitec CEO’s one thing to save South Africa’s economy

Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie believes South Africa’s economic growth potential can be unlocked by growing and better understanding the country’s informal market.

In a recent interview with BizNewsTV, Fourie explained why he believes it is important for South Africa to understand the informal sector better.

This comes after the CEO was in hot water for comments about South Africa’s unemployment rate, which Fourie argued is grossly overestimated.

However, Fourie argued at a Capitec media day in June 2025 that this number should be far lower, as it does not account for South Africans who have businesses in the informal market.

Capitec is working hard to target this sector through its business, which it calls the ‘emerging market’, through its business banking services.

Fourie explained that these South Africans have businesses that operate similarly to companies in the formal market, but are overlooked by data collectors like Stats SA when compiling the country’s employment data.

He said the country’s unemployment rate is closer to 10% than the 33% figure Stats SA estimates when including emerging market businesses like spaza shops or backroom renters.

Fourie’s comments sparked a heated debate among various industry stakeholders around how South Africa’s unemployment rate is determined.

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke defended Stats SA’s methodology for collecting unemployment data, telling BusinessDay it is “incorrect and misleading to suggest” that the organisation misses those employed in the informal sector.

Ultimately, Fourie and Maluleke found common ground, as the two parties met at the start of July, alongside Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, and senior representatives from Stats SA and the National Treasury.

At this engagement, Maluleke said Stats SA remained open to exploring the development of a statistical register for small-scale and informal businesses.

He said this would strengthen the quality and granularity of labour market data and support policy initiatives from the Department of Small Business Development.

Unlocking South Africa’s potential

In the interview with BizNewsTV, Fourie explained that the argument he tried to make when igniting this debate was not intended to centre around the country’s unemployment figures.

Instead, Fourie argued that South Africa needs to understand the informal sector better. He believes this is the key to unlocking and growing the country’s economy.

“I believe that is where the growth is going to be, because if you look at employment, the big companies are not employing, the government is not employing – it’s the entrepreneurs that are employing,” he said.

“The point I’m bringing across is that we don’t understand the informal sector and we need to understand it so that we can support it with policies, infrastructure, investments, etc, to grow it because then I believe we’re going to unlock the potential in South Africa,” he said.

Unfortunately, Fourie said a significant portion of South Africa does not understand the informal market, which is why his comments regarding the 10% unemployment figure were so divisive.

“But the big point is actually, let’s understand that market and really develop policies for it and grow it,” he said.

“My whole thing is how do we drive and how do we grow South Africa, and we’re missing a massive part of the economy if we think we’re only going to do it in the formal sector.”

While exact figures are difficult to obtain, considering the market is not formalised and South Africa still has a large cash economy, Capitec’s access to vast amounts of data can give an idea of how large the emerging economy is.

Based on data from Capitec’s over 24 million clients, the bank estimates that around 9 million people are active in the country’s informal sector.

Informal economy expert GG Alcock, who has studied this sector for years, estimates the value of this economy to be between R600 billion and R750 billion. 

In the same interview with BizNewsTV, Alcock said this figure could even be closer to R1 trillion.