Growing SA’s informal market
in 2015, the absence of credit solutions for spaza shop owners led to bankers Siya Ntutela and Mdu Thabethe deciding to fill this gap by starting their own financial services company, Zande Africa.
“The name of the company was derived from a Nguni word that means ‘to multiply’, in reference to our objective to unlock the spaza shop economy, which boasts an annual revenue of over R40bn,” says Ntutela.
Their subsequent analysis uncovered that supply issues were an even greater challenge than cash constraints. “Spaza shop owners, at least once a week,
