Nedbank is the Best SME Bank in South Africa for the fourth consecutive year
'These international awards affirm Nedbank's unwavering focus on delivering a compelling value proposition for SMEs, offering tailored banking solutions, expert guidance, and seamless digital experiences designed to help businesses thrive,' says Alan Shannon, Executive: Small Business at Nedbank. 'More than just banking, we see SMEs as the backbone of our economy, and we are dedicated to fostering their growth for the broader benefit of our country's economy. These accolades reinforce our purpose of using our financial expertise to do good by enabling small businesses to scale, create jobs, and contribute meaningfully to economic development.'
The Asian Banker runs the most prestigious awards programmes in the industry, covering the full spectrum of topics and areas that constitute the financial services through a rigorous, independent evaluation process. The Global Finance Magazine awards programme recognise and celebrate excellence within the global financial industry based on a variety of criteria, including financial performance, innovation, and customer service and cover diverse areas such as banking, corporate finance, and private banking.
The Digital Banker Global SME Banking Innovation Awards are the first of their kind. The assessment programme is designed to honour and celebrate the world's preeminent SME banking players. SME banks must demonstrate capabilities and competencies that are unmatched and transformative in nature, redefining models of customer engagement with SMEs and providing cutting-edge product portfolio and solution sets to empower SME growth.
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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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The Finance Ghost: Shoprite still the checkout champion in retail wars
While there are opportunities to make money in the South African economy, you have to be pretty selective about where you look. It's not news to you that South Africa's economic growth has been less than inspiring, leading to South Africans becoming poorer by global standards. Nedbank's recent results are evidence of lacklustre economic activity, with the bank struggling to get enough loans out into the wild to offset the impact of a dip in interest rates. In the retail sector, The Foschini Group put forward some fascinating arguments at their Capital Markets Day about the shocking trend in the average South African's real income (ie adjusted for inflation) over the past decade and why this is forcing the group to see its value offerings as the best local growth engine. These corporate nuggets are a useful reminder that while there are definitely opportunities to make money in the South African economy, you have to be pretty selective about where you look. 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Although this sounds great in theory, the problem is that Pick n Pay has a vast base of franchise stores. For the turnaround to be successful, they need both corporate-owned and franchise stores to pull their weight. In the past three reported periods (being the first and second halves of FY25, as well as the first 17 weeks of FY26), corporate-owned stores grew turnover by 3.1%, 3.6% and 4.0% respectively. In stark contrast, franchise supermarkets managed -1.4%, 1.1% and 0.2% respectively. It's not hard to spot the more consistent story with positive momentum. As encouraging as the corporate-owned story is, Pick n Pay's efforts to shrink into profitability have led to a situation where total sales growth is non-existent. Essentially, the store closures are offsetting the growth in other stores. While this is the right decision in terms of the turnaround, it doesn't exactly tell a story of growth. Pick n Pay Clothing remains the gem, with an astonishing 12.5% increase in like-for-like sales in the latest 17-week period. While the timing of winter has played a role here and this isn't indicative of sustainable growth, this store format's consistently strong performance shows that Pick n Pay can still win when they get the model right. Lots of wagging tails at Shoprite Shoprite's latest update covers the 52 weeks to 29 June 2025, so it's not directly comparable to Pick n Pay's release. Still, it tells an incredible story of a group that just doesn't stop winning, with HEPS from continuing operations expected to be 9.4% to 19.4% higher. This was driven by sales growth of 8.9%, with Supermarkets RSA leading the charge with growth of 9.5%. Digging deeper into Supermarkets RSA reveals that Checkers and Checkers Hyper delivered growth of 13.8%, while Shoprite and Usave were far more modest at 5.2%. Boxer is giving Shoprite a proper go when it comes to lower-income shoppers, whereas higher-income shoppers have flocked to Checkers at a time when Pick n Pay has been shedding customers. It's not all good news, though. There's a concerning trend in sales momentum from the first half to the second half of the year, with Supermarkets RSA growing 10.4% in the first half and 8.5% in the second half. There's certainly nothing wrong with 8.5% growth, but Shoprite is trading on a demanding earnings multiple and any slowdown in growth will be a concern for the market. Unlike Pick n Pay, which must shrink into profitability, Shoprite is expanding in key verticals. They love the pet opportunity for example, with Petshop Science opening 60 new stores to take the total footprint to 144 stores. Interestingly, the worrying trend in the birth rate is on full display at Shoprite, with just one new Little Me store opened in this period, taking the total to 11 stores. 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