Business and Technology

n the early 2000s a clever group of entrepreneurs transformed a mishmash of microlenders into a bank that would become South Africa’s largest. A plucky disruptor with more than 20 million clients.How do you build a new bank from scratch? What does it take to challenge established industry giants? Best-selling author TJ Strydom explores how Capitec Bank rose to prominence, becoming the biggest business success story of South Africa’s democratic era, and earning the title of the world’s best bank in 2016. A small Stellenbosch upstart took on the giants – Absa, Standard Bank, FNB and Nedbank, with their luxurious head offices in Johannesburg – by disrupting the traditional banking model. Opening branches when others were closing theirs, prioritising personal service over automation, and catering to those South Africans deemed ‘unprofitable’, Capitec demonstrated that innovation can drive financial success while making a positive social impact and serving the needs of ordinary people. This is the inspirational, authentically South African story of the biggest local business success of the 21st century.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is upending life, work, and play as we know it … and it’s only just getting started. The rise of AI is a milestone on par with the discovery of fire, the invention of the wheel, and the creation of the internet. In short, AI is going to change everything. For some, that’s an exciting prospect. For others, it’s terrifying. However you feel about AI, there’s no escaping it, whether you’re in a global metropolis or a farmer in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Dr Mark Nasila has been watching AI’s ascent for over a decade, studying its effects on everything from agriculture and aviation to healthcare, education, entertainment, crime prevention, energy management, policy creation, finance, and anything in between, and applying them to his role at one of South Africa’s most successful financial institutions, First National Bank, a division of FirstRand Group. African Artificial Intelligence is a comprehensive and fascinating journey, tracing the rise of AI and its evolution into the emerging technology underpinning all others – from connected devices and smart chatbots to the metaverse. Mark combines unexpected use cases and tales of cutting-edge innovation with a unique and potent argument: harnessing AI to solve Africa’s problems requires embracing it from an African perspective. African nations can’t afford to simply import AI solutions from afar. Instead, Mark contends, they need to rework, remix, and refine AI so it’s able to meet uniquely African challenges in uniquely African ways, and to take advantage of the once-in-a-generation opportunity AI represents for every industry, sector, and person, everywhere.

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