Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Patience Panashe

Creator

Patience Panashe

Patience Panashe is a researcher with Birguid, a strategy, finance and enterprise development agency to Africa's private and public sector organisations.

At the start of 2026, four of South Africa’s five largest banks were simultaneously pursuing acquisition targets in Kenya.

The scramble for Kenya: what South Africa’s banking expansion means for African business

At the start of 2026, four of South Africa’s five largest banks were simultaneously pursuing acquisition targets in Kenya. Understanding why this convergence is happening, and…

Capitec’s foundational insight was not technological. It was structural. South Africa’s existing banking model was built around complexity, tiered fee structures, opaque pricing, products designed for clients who already had wealth. (Capitec)

What Capitec’s 25th year tells the rest of Africa’s banks

Capitec Bank recently published results that were, by any measure, remarkable. Headline earnings rose 23% to R16.8 billion for the year ended February 2026. Return on equity came…

What does entrepreneurship really mean in the African context?

What works in one place and for one group of people will not necessarily work elsewhere.

Tourism remains a key component of the South African economy.

Domestic travel is key to saving the tourism sector

Staying ahead of the digital curve, including local communities in tourism offerings and promoting domestic tourism can help the ailing tourism sector survive and thrive

Tourism is one of those low-hanging fruits that South Africa should exploit to resuscitate the economy post-Covid-19.

Domestic tourism to the rescue

The South African tourism sector’s recovery is up to us, because local travel can save the sector

There is strong bipartisan and beneficiary support for making improvements to Agoa.

An African free trade area is in our sights

Successes and failures from other initiative such as the European Union will be instructive, but much work must be done before the African Continental Trade Area becomes a reality