Capitec, one of South Africa’s fastest growing banks, is entering the mobile services space with Capitec Connect. It is a mobile virtual network operator, and launched in partnership with Cell C. The company has said it is certain its new offerings will disrupt the prepaid market in South Africa.
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“South Africans have been complaining about the cost of data. It’s expensive and complicated,” said Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie. “Bundle pricing, off-peak and peak rates, and the fact that your data expired are all things that make no sense.” Capitec is changing this by giving its clients access to mobile services that are simpler to understand and more affordable, Fourie added.
“It is through partnerships such as the one between Capitec and Cell C that we can make a major difference in bridging the digital divide that still exists in our country,” said Cell C CEO Douglas Craigie Stevenson.
Capitec wants to offer these services without data or airtime that has been purchased by the customer ever expiring. Back in 2017, regulations were proposed by industry regulator Icasa and the National Consumer Commissioner advocated for data to remain valid for at least three years. But after aggressive lobbying by the major players in the industry, it was removed from the final service charter amendments and replaced with more lenient provisions. Capitec wants to apply its own rules in this case, and don’t want to do the bare minimum. “Capitec is now leading the change by addressing this issue head-on,” the bank stated.
Capitec Connect offers 100MB of data for R4.50, and 1GB for R45. The data never expires provided the SIM is used at least once every six months.
“Our vision is to bring connectivity to all. We want to help create opportunity for everyone to be able to connect with access to affordable data and digital banking anywhere, anytime,” Fourie said.
