Financial Literacy is Infrastructure Crucial for South Africa’s Economic Security, Says Access Bank Chief

As South Africa observes National Savings Month this July, financial inclusion must evolve beyond simply opening bank accounts.

True financial security requires treating financial literacy as critical national infrastructure, according to Yinka Yomi-Tokosi, Managing Executive: Strategy & Investments at Access Bank South Africa.

With households facing severe cost-of-living pressures, Yomi-Tokosi argues that access to financial systems only becomes meaningful when consumers understand how to use those systems safely, confidently, and to their own benefit.

"A customer can have a bank account and still feel excluded from the financial system," says Yomi-Tokosi. "They may not understand why fees were charged, how interest accumulates, what a debit order means, why a credit score matters, or how to identify fraud. The product may be there, but confidence is missing."

Why Financial Education Matters Now

The call to elevate financial education comes at a critical time of regulatory and market shifts in South Africa:

• New Policy Directions: The National Treasury’s draft National Consumer Financial Education Policy, released for consultation in 2026, explicitly recognises financial education as a core pillar for improving financial wellbeing and building digital trust.
• Severe Debt Pressures: Last year's FinMark Trust FinScope findings reported that 75% of South African adults who borrowed used credit just to cover everyday essentials like food, with an estimated 12 million adults classified as over-indebted.
• Escalating Digital Fraud: SABRIC statistics show that digital banking fraud skyrocketed from 31,612 incidents in 2023 to 64,000 in 2024, with losses exceeding R1.4 billion. Critically, SABRIC noted that these crimes are driven by social engineering (manipulating human behaviour) rather than technical breaches of bank security.

Building Financial Literacy Into Everyday Banking

Yomi-Tokosi stresses that banks must move away from treating financial literacy as a "once-a-year campaign or a brochure handed out in a branch."

Instead, real-world educational alerts must be built directly into daily transactions and communications to protect consumers from predatory lending and sophisticated syndicates.

"Digital trust is not built through technology alone," Yomi-Tokosi adds. "It also depends on whether people understand the risks that surround the technology. Financial literacy is not a soft add-on to inclusion. It is what helps people turn access into control."