Here’s why one in three adults in SA is active on the Capitec app

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DUDUZILE RAMELA: Twenty-five years and over 26 million active customers across its ecosystem: Capitec Bank continues to grow in leaps and bounds, delivering its results for the year through February 2026.

Read: Capitec dividend beats estimates after bank posts record profit

Headline earnings, a key profit measure in South Africa, rose to R16.8 billion from R13.7 billion in the same period last year. Net interest income jumped 19% to R24.1 billion, as interest income on lending grew by 14%. Return on equity is up 31% compared to 29% in 2025. The group says its credit loss ratio – a measure of bad loans against total loans – increased from 7.5% to 8.1%.

Capitec customers are also quite happy because they got back R1 billion, largely driven by reduced fees.

We speak now to CEO Graham Lee, who delivered his first results for the group today. Thank you very much for your time this evening, Graham. As you delivered the results this morning, you kept reminding us that customers vote with their feet. What do you put this vote of confidence down to?

GRAHAM LEE: Good evening. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

I put it down to our culture of focusing on the client. It is not just words that we use or put up in the boardroom. We make sure that we understand our clients.

We understand where they are. We walk the streets, we visit branches, we talk to them.

And understanding what their needs are better enables us to design the products and services that resonate with them.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: And this is reflected in the numbers, because for personal banking – let’s just take a look at the sources of income. You can tell us about personal banking and what you saw there. You have some 26 million clients, 866 branches, 8 771 cash devices.

GRAHAM LEE: Yes. The Personal Bank remains the heart of our business. It is the most significant contributor to earnings, as well as the platform from which all of our other businesses grow.

So those branches and cash devices you refer to – we continue to grow those. The reason we continue to grow them is because that’s what our clients need.

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They need excellent digital services, they need to be able to self-serve – but they also need to be served by a human being in the moments that are important to them.

We do that through our branches, and we are available to them when they need cash – in addition to the digital business growth that’s coming and is reflecting in Vas [Value-Added Services] and Capital Connect.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Net interest income up 18% to R14.1 billion after credit impairments. Non-interest income, including Transact, Vas, Connect and Insurance up 19% to R28.3billion. Can you talk to us about the proportions?

GRAHAM LEE: Yes, certainly. The last two years really have shown very strong growth in Insurance and Capital Connect, as well as our Value-Added Services, which has continued to increase the proportion of income that we earn from operations – outside of credit.

That has been a deliberate strategy.

It has been part of the diversification of the business that we have been pursuing to ensure that we are agile and resilient, and that we are serving our customers throughout the economic cycle.

If you look in the year ahead then, what you can expect to see is we are going to continue to grow our credit book. So there will be a shift back again, with that ratio of 67% dropping slightly.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: The Fintech business amounts for 26% of that R16.8 billion. What did you see in this segment in particular?

GRAHAM LEE: I think a really strong resonance and uptake with respect to our new products.

So we continue to look for ways to serve our clients better and add additional value in their lives. That means rolling out new digital products, which has resonated with clients – and you see that in our results.

We are also still bringing new products to market.

For example, we are launching bus tickets in the next couple of days as our next Vas product offering, which will be the first offering in travel.

That’s something which we know will appeal to a lot of our clients, and the ability to buy them in a secure way, true to the Capitec fundamentals, is something that our customers want.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Absolutely. That’s quite an exciting development, especially for people who use that mode of transport – who are quite a few in the country.

When we look at client savings, you’ve put R1 billion back into your clients’ pockets. Tell us what drove that.

GRAHAM LEE: Our business model is one of scale, and from that scale we build economies of scale, and then share that back to our clients.

It is a deliberate part of the strategy because there’s a virtuous cycle; when we share our successes back with our clients, we gain even more scale.

That R1 billion in client savings comes from a number of different elements. One is simplified and reduced fees, both to personal-bank clients and business-bank clients. That’s R228-odd million.

Another significant piece is the reduced card-machine pricing and commission, enabling many small businesses of all sizes, including people with [side] hustles, to get access, to getting paid better.

But the biggest single piece was the R330 million that we gave back to our clients – in effect through reduced Connect data prices.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: There’s something that you said this morning about Send Cash, more specifically. Can you just elaborate on that for us in terms of client use and what you experienced?

GRAHAM LEE: Yes, certainly. What we see is an increasing trend towards digital.

It’s not so much that people are moving away from cash as that they are moving to digital services.

When clients do use cash though, what we see more and more is they’re performing that transaction without their cards, and they’re using Send Cash as a cardless cash withdrawal.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Looking at your client profile – 26 million clients across a growing ecosystem.

Now those are active clients, and these are adults in South Africa; 15 million active on the app – that’s up 19%. And 9.9 million are fully banked, 4.5 million that’s for insurance and 456 000 for the business and entrepreneurs that you just touched on. That is up 71%. So a growing segment of your business is the business banking segment.

But in terms of this, one out of three adult South Africans are active on your app. Why is that so important?

GRAHAM LEE: It speaks to how engaged those clients are with us and with our offer. It creates within us an ability to serve them better, to understand them better because of their regular transactions with us.

Because of that, we can develop products and services that they need – and that includes greater access to credit. Because we understand our clients better, we’re able to say ‘yes’ more often.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: What’s the outlook for the business?

GRAHAM LEE: Looking forward for the next few years, Personal Bank will remain the heart of our business and the biggest contributor. As I said earlier, [it is] the launchpad from which all our other businesses fly.

So our main focus and our highest priorities are protecting and growing that business. That comes by protecting our clients.

Beyond that, we’re executing now and accelerating Business Banking, Emerging Markets, Connect and Insure.

Business Banking is such a fantastic opportunity – both for us and for the economy around us because, as we grow businesses, as we provide more access to funding, those businesses grow.

I think the biggest growth story in the next couple of years, what I’m most excited about, is Business Banking and extending that business offer to emerging markets, to people who right now are not necessarily seen as legitimate businesses – but of course they are.

They are working and hustling and earning every single day. And when we can serve them better, when we can provide them with access to funding, that market will grow.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Thank you very much for your time, Graham. Before we let you go, maybe talk to the people who work with you, your staff. There’s a mall not too far from where we are and, if you get there at 8:00, they’re open. Other banks are still closed. They open at 9:00, and those people are there with a smile, ready to serve.

So what’s your word to the people that work with you?

GRAHAM LEE: Thank you. My words, over and over again, are just the deepest gratitude.

Capitec’s success comes from the incredible people we have, the people who show up every single day with such energy, take ownership of what needs to be done, and are client-obsessed.

Our people are the reason that we thrive.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Thank you for your time this evening. Graham Lee is the CEO of Capitec.