Banks and financial services in South Africa play an important role
in the upkeep of our economy. The financial system of a nation will
determine how successful the country is. During the recession that
rocked the world, South Africa did fairly well in the sense that we were
not hit as hard as Europe and America. This meant the amount of people
who lost jobs was kept at a minimum and the country did not lose as much
money as predicted. This was evident in the middle of the recession
South Africa was spending billions on the soccer world cup. How was that
possible?

Firstly, we had one of the best financial ministers
in the world, Trevor Manuel. From the moment Trevor Manuel was elected
Minister of Finance in South Africa we saw continuous growth of our
economy. We are even part of the BRICS Nations, which consist of Brazil,
Russia, India, China and ourselves. Experts believe that the only thing
that holds us back is we have a smaller population than those other
BRICS countries.

Secondly, I believe the way Trevor Manual went
about running the Ministry of Finance was outstanding. He employed the
best staff and consultants to help him transform the Ministry of Finance
into what it is today. It has become South Africa’s best functioning
ministry. The National Credit Act sparked the development loan
administration software and other technology used in financial services.
This is the technology that determines how a person acquires loans from
banks and prevents over-indebtedness of consumers.

Now
that the worst of the recession is over we need to implement ideas that
will prevent a future crisis. I believe we need quality leadership, we
need to improve on the technology we have, improving financial service
software development is one of the ways of doing this. This will allow
us to stay ahead of the game using technology to keep our financial
system in the black. Consumers need to save more and spend less. The
recession was largely caused by bad debt, so less debt will prevent
future problems. If we work together the country has nothing to worry
about.