Royally flush — Queen Máxima on financial health tour of Cape Town
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands is an economist on a mission to promote financial health. She visited Cape Town to learn and share.
When I first got the call that there might be an opportunity for me to interview Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, I thought there must be a mistake.
However, her role as the UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Financial Health put it all in perspective. Personal finance has always been my passion, and for me financial literacy is the pathway to financial health.
Queen Máxima is equally passionate about financial health, and her role is an evolution of her work as the UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, which she had been for 15 years.
After years of advocating financial inclusion, Queen Máxima maintains that access alone is no longer enough. Financial service providers and policymakers should be reviewing products with financial health as the desired outcome. Her focus areas are the development of products and services that help people to achieve financial health by enabling them to:
Manage their day-to-day finances;
Build a buffer to withstand financial shocks;
Invest to reach short- and long-term goals; and
Gain confidence in their financial future.
The queen cuts a striking, statuesque figure, the epitome of elegance. She wore a navy blue pantsuit with her hair tied back simply. The African skies saw fit to welcome her with a shower of rain, or African blessings as some believe.
At 1.8m, blonde and slim, the queen would not be out of place on a catwalk – but she is actually a qualified economist. So, when she sets out to promote financial health she knows what she is talking about.
Financial inclusion in the Netherlands is 99.7%, and of its roughly 8.4 million households, only about 1.4 million have financial problems. About 726,000 have 'problematic debt'. Problematic debt is a situation where your debt has become unmanageable, resulting in depression and other negative effects.
Despite the apparently high numbers, the Netherlands presents a striking difference to South Africa, where only 16% of South Africans are considered financially healthy.
As we visited different sites around Cape Town, it quickly became clear that the queen's focus is on financial health, rather than simply financial inclusion.
Financial inclusion means ensuring access to financial services such as banking, credit, savings accounts and insurance.
Financial health is another rung on the ladder to financial success, building on financial inclusion to achieve the ability to live within your means, save and plan for the future and cope with unexpected expenses.
Our first stop was Khayelitsha. As we braved the rain to enter the building, we were met by the Voice of Hope youth choir, who had gathered to sing and dance in the queen's honour.
Nedbank launched a branch in Khayelitsha in 2003, which has grown into a 'mega-branch' today, offering self-service kiosks to increase digital banking and mobile banking units to serve customers where they are.
Noluvuyo Ndyoko of the Masikhulo Savings Club, a stokvel, told the queen how the stokvel had opened an account with Nedbank in 2008. Today it boasts 142 members. 'We offer our members loans at lower interest rates of 7.5% so that they don't turn to loan sharks,' she said.
To instil financial discipline and ensure loans are repaid, the stokvel imposes steep penalties of 30% for missed payments, and members who are absent from meetings without excusing themselves pay a R200 fine. 'In the last month we made about R49,000 in penalties alone,' Ndyoko said.
The queen was clearly invested in the conversation. She had done her homework and already understood the concept of a stokvel. Smiling gently as she listened to the stokvel members, she asked questions that revealed her interest.
This keen interest in financial health shone through at the next site visit – China Town in Ottery, where we met Namhla Cengani, an entrepreneur with a business based on WhatsApp. Cengani accessed a microloan via Spoon Money, which allowed her to expand her business by taking on more stock. 'Although I have a bank account, the loan criteria are so stringent that, as an entrepreneur with an unstable income, I do not qualify,' she told the queen.
Cengani outlined how Spoon Money also supports its clients with financial literacy via a WhatsApp group.
'Before I worked with Spoon Money, I was just living month to month. I didn't know how to manage a business. Now I understand that owning a business doesn't mean using all the profit each month. You have to pay yourself a salary and reinvest the money into your business so it can grow,' she said.
The third and final stop on the trip was the Discovery Bank branch in Sea Point. A far cry from the two previous sites, the queen was met there by Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner, who talked her through the concept of Vitality and how the bank uses the same principles as other divisions of Discovery to drive positive client behaviour.
The behaviours Vitality Money encourages include spending less than you earn, saving regularly, insuring for adverse events, paying off property and investing long-term.
Queen Máxima emphasised that although South Africa has made notable strides in financial inclusion, the lack of financial health is weakening resilience and stalling inclusive growth.
She also heard from Discovery Bank clients Jonathan and Latoya Cleary about their journey to financial wellbeing using the Discovery Bank Vitality programme.
They enrolled in a financial education course offered on the Discovery Bank app. Then they used the budgeting and financial planning features of Vitality Money to help track expenses, manage debt and set the goals of owning a home and being debt-free. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
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