Absa profit rises as credit quality improves and Govt moves to give ITAC new powers over imports

And now the money show with Stephen credits on 7.02 let's walk the toll the money show

with Stephen Curtis is brought to you by absent corporate and investment banking proud

sponsors of GTR Africa 2026 enabling trade flows for growth absent it's a registered

FSP good evening welcome to the program I'm Stephen Curtis at nine minutes after six the

time and obviously oil prices falling below $90 a barrel having a big impact on markets

everywhere the U.S. turning positive in the last half hour the JSC having a sort of semi recovery

basically so many of the losses we've seen over the last few days being reversed the ran stronger

almost everything looking better look you wouldn't say that if you were a sassal or

some gala shareholder but almost everybody else probably feeling a bit stronger today even some

of the gold shares interestingly does take some of the pressure off raises hopes

but just maybe the worst is over hard to say Trump may say that the war will end soon

Iran is the other player though and they say something completely different so it's not quite as

simple as just saying it'll be like that absent reporting what seemed to me to be quite strong

reports with quite strong results who will hear from Kenny Fitler their CEO in just a moment

Fundi Chazibana is a deputy governor at the reserve bank also director general there a big conference

underway about how how sent reserve bank central banks should manage climate and nature related

financial risks see if I can slip in a question about sort of markets at the moment I'm sure she

won't say very much I'm just looking at how shopping is changing and how cities change in

urban flow and developments and the waterfall development in the Houting it does seem to me to have

developed a sort of a center of gravity will speak to the company behind it the repeated

availias is the chief financial officer attack I mean if you spend any time in waterfall and not

just in a driver's license queue won't you let me know what it is that's attracted to you there why

you why you've gone there quite close to get to for some people I think that's part of it but also

does this seem to be growing very strongly and then I abong a car where the chief commission of

the international trade administration commission they're getting all sorts of new powers under

suggested changes to their act they would get their power to sort of search to inspect but also

the power to kind of intervene if there issues around domestic products the impact of imports for

example on jobs here I mean my first thought was look at what's happening with Chinese and

Indian cars and our motor industry will ask them about that good to hear from you tonight on

OWA 30702 0214 460567 and voice note tonight of course on 07272 1702

the money show with Stephen Kruders live on 92.7 and 106 FM streaming on the prime media plus

app and dstv channel 856 well absent reporting its african division and its corporate and investment

banking division helping it to increase its headline earnings by over 12% the african regions

units alone so headline earnings by over 50% the group CEO at absent is Kenny Fechler

can you good evening good to talk to you again on the money show your corporate and investment

banking unit headline earnings up by nearly 14% where is that business coming from are people

spending more money with you are you able to increase your market share I think the combination

of factors the first being that our investment banking business especially lending has done

a section of the while at the back of opportunities that presented themselves in the energy and

infrastructure sector we have also seen very very strong performance from our global market

business in part assisted by the volatility that we have been seeing in the last couple of

sort of months and dating back into sort of early 2025 that business is always positioned

to take advantage of uncertainty and volatility in the market in as much as we worry now

about what's happening in the Middle East and the war global market business sees opportunity

to have client mitigate the risk of uncertainty and hedge their position so those two businesses

have done exceptionally well your business banking division headline earnings were down by

were 8% I mean it is part of a new structure is it still finding its feet in some ways it not

sort of running properly yet maybe I think the number of factors they are revenues in their group

by sort of mid sort of single digit figures but the cost growth was not contained appropriately

as they were invested in expanding the sales origination team in addition the quality of the

asset book is still getting itself sort of cleaned I think when there was an aggressive attempt to

grow business banking there was origination that was not real of a good quality and that resulted

in massive impairment we're still seeing the tail end of those bad credit decisions but the

fundamentals are starting to be solid I'm fairly confident that with all the effort that's been

put into that business including the secondment of people from other parts of the group to strengthen

the leadership pension that business banking should see its way true 20 to the stick and

bouncing back very strongly by 20 to the seven you you present several scenarios for our economy

and like everyone I think you you're suddenly worried about higher oil prices I mean if oil I

mean it's below a hundred dollars a barrel now it's below 90 but for a couple of days it was

above a hundred are you worried about high interest rates in the near future as a result?

I think if the war in the Middle East continues for sort of a projected period of time

within the scenario of higher inflation which will have a consequential impact on the cost

of credit IE higher interest rates becomes more likely so we hope that this sort of current crisis

will be resolved fairly quickly and so that the transmission mechanism is limited to a very very

short sort of period of time we import most African countries import refined flooded from the

Middle East and if there is a crisis therefore in the Middle East in particular with regards to oil

that will find its way to our domestic economies in addition supply chains have been disrupted

which means the transportation costs are not all imported or exported goods is likely to

escalate again that will have a negative impact on many of the economies in the markets within which

you operate so we're really concerned but we're not panicking yet given that it is still too early

to tear but the longer this drags on they're higher the risk of the transmission effect.

One of the first things you did when he took over what was it eight so actually nine months ago now

I suppose was you looked at absent you changed the structure and there's been a lot of change

at absent the institution over the years and particularly in recent times most of it before you

the structure you have now a few months in are you satisfied it's the correct one you're not

looking at making any major changes I mean I think people at absent become used to change

and afraid. I think it's a far more sustainable structure in that it was really about running our

businesses on a ten African basis it just doesn't make sense that we're not leveraging and the

chance that we have in one geography to benefit the rest of our footprint because the business is

other than CAB where I'm tuning along country geographic lines if the massive and interesting

product innovation in one country it took way too long for that to be sort of threatened straight

and commercialized in the other geographies because there was an institutional mechanism

of ensuring cost lending it was also limiting our ability to grow and move talent around and

thirdly it had a negative impact on the clients many of the business paying in client especially

the upper end of that business tend to operate in multi geographies but we can't service them

appropriately if our dominant operating model is predominantly local so we're trying to get the

best of both world leverage the ability to move best faxita costs service multi geographic

land across your geographies whilst at the same time tapping into local talent innovation

and local circumstances and I think that's a far more sustainable part of. I mean talking of

talent Kenny I mean you came from Standard Bank it seems quite a few people I don't know

did they just decide maybe to follow you and tell you they see who's a good example maybe there

are some other reasons that they suddenly arrived at EBSA um do you have the team you want

around you now or should some of the other banks be sort of locking their talent up a little bit

I think the level of the group at school I'm 90% there comfortable with the quality of the

people that we have I still need to appoint the chief executive of business banking and we are

in the final stages of that process once these leaders are in place as is the case with

right now who's in the sit they themselves need to review their teams see if there are any guests

and make sure that that continuous process of strengthening the bank centers not just top

at the top does not just end at the top but continues throughout the organization what

has promised the board will enjoy in EBSA is that they want to make sure that by the time I retire

the organization has succession options which means that the caliber of the people that they

appoint must be such that they can succeed me I expect the same from people who are running

the different businesses within EBSA I think we owe it to the organization to strengthen the

paying strength make sure that we give the organization options and ultimately we create a

high performing culture can you fair Claire thank you very much indeed for your time tonight to

appreciate it the group CEO at EBSA 20 minutes after six the money show with Stephen Kruders live

on 19.7 and 106 FM streaming on the prime media plus nap and dstv channel 856 well you would have

seen a much calmer day in global markets today the US president Donald Trump seeming to indicate

the war involving the US is well in Iran and may in soon oil prices lower there was a huge

jump in bond yields yesterday and a couple of days before that that even led to speculation

about the reserve bank and other central banks possibly having to intervene and at the same time

today underway the network for the greening of the financial system it's in routing there's a

static conference to a navigating climate risk in southern Africa the director general at the

reserve bank see of the potential authority in a reserve bank deputy governor is fundi chabazzana

deputy governor good evening and thank you for your time i will ask you a lot about climate

risks in a moment but i'm sure you've been watching the markets really very closely our bond yields

have jumped dramatically since the conflict in the middle east are you worried at this stage that

you might have to intervene uh good evening Stephen central banks are very cautious it takes a lot

to worry us uh but we are watching and monitoring what is happening what i can say to you is that

we've got a sweet or tools that are available to us as you know there's a monetary policy committee

that's coming up in coming weeks at that point we're going to assess what the data is telling us

and assess whether these risks are short term or we think that there might be second round effects

and then we would take the appropriate decisions or also monitor whether we think they are

any financial stability risks that come through and if there is a need to act we are well able

to do that but bear in mind that these are shocks that are not predictable so something that is

like a war does require careful study by the central bank and so we would respond to things like

market dysfunction at this stage the market seems to be correcting so a reprising in the market

does not mean there's a dysfunction and we're paying careful attention to what's happening still

quite a long time in terms of how quickly this conflict is progressing before the NPC meets and you

have to make a decision i imagine too early to say what is going to mean for interest rates

well too early to tell Stephen they are mainly variables so if a conflict has just materialized

and if prices are just started to increase you're not going to see that in the inflation data

that you would have seen it takes time they are legs and so we have to do careful monitoring

and that's where the humans come in right and that's where judgment comes through and they might

be things that we might need to see through so closer to the meeting we'll have a greater appreciation

of the issues and as i said we will continue to study and the decision will come out as as appropriate

your conference that you've been dealing with about navigating climate change

and what role should central banks be playing in managing climate change risk and if we were to

look over the longer term that's probably maybe the biggest risk that we're going to face

yeah so central banks have got probably three roles to play around climate issues

the one is around data collection and understanding where potential risks might come in

and we've got an important role to play in terms of scenario analysis

and this is one of the things that the network for greening the financial system has been doing

playing out multiple scenarios that relate to physical risks and what they might mean for central

banks what they might mean to monetary policy what they might mean to financial stability

the second area is around the active risk management itself you were talking to the CEO of

APSA earlier so one of the things that we do is financial supervisors is to have conversations

with financial institutions and assist where that they are having conversations with the clients

about potential climate risks and conversations with insurers to understand whether they understand

those risks so that we are aware of potential insurance protection gaps the third area is around

market development as you know this climate finance that is available that can provide opportunities

for us as countries and so we do need to create special markets will allow these funds to flow

into a country like South Africa alongside of course looking at other areas such as financial

inclusion and how this can be undermined and working together with other parts of government to

ensure that that we have got sufficient intermediation in our economy and we have we are able to

close potential protection gaps and we can deal with economic costs that might come from from

climate change we've seen quite a bit of political pushback against the greener agenda I mean

does that affect the attitude of central banks to climate change in any way I mean I suppose

it's a financial risk and they're just treated in those terms so risks are risk even so so there

is of course a conversation a political economy conversation on climate in some quarters their

questions around whether climate change ought to be a priority for for us as countries as poverty

reduction a priority for us as countries and our answer to that is that the risks are here it doesn't

matter how we define the risks and how we think about the risks if we ask the people of the eastern

cave about the cyclone that hits them during the course of December the recent floods and then

Bobo and Bumalanga these are realities for the most vulnerable who are not insured many of them

these are vulnerabilities for us as a country to think about because other countries are taking

steps that might have shaped our trade income so if we look at the European border adjustment

taxes so these are things that are real so our stance really is one that we need to respond to

the world around us to the changes in the environment around us and do work that is required

for us to help South Africans to navigate this journey because it is not going to be an easy one

as you said earlier it is a structural shift it has impacts on communities it will even impact

job creation and the sectors that survive over time as well so these are things that we ought to

actively think about not because of the global discourse but because of what is in our interest

as a country and what makes sense for South Africa deputy governor thank you I really do appreciate

your time on the money show the deputy governor at the reserve bank for the Chazibana and of course

the director general there and CEO of the prudential authority 27 minutes after six the money show

the market and for me what a son is a senior equity sales trader at absa crb and for me good evening

um okay so we're looking at the bond market we're speaking to the deputy governor about that

I mean you look at what happened yesterday and then you look at what happened today and they're

sort of completely different markets yeah thanks Stephen always good to be here and like you say such

a dynamic market that we in like it it just feels like a whirlwind and you know tumble dry one day

to the next it's been pretty difficult navigating these markets yeah just on the sub on the governor's

comments it came out yesterday I think you know like they say always cautious always you know

and on the side of you know just to be very cautious in these kind of environments you know I don't

think it's we're not in a 2020 scenario yet where they're going to have to be forced to act and

when they're acted was more sort sort of around communication than anything else um but you're

just it just shows you that in an environment like this you can't take anything for granted you do

need to be conservative in your stance hmm um I mean talking of all of that and you talk about

swings uh Tungela and Sassel um Tungela particularly a big winner over the last few days and the

biggest loser today yeah it's quite interesting to trade into the analyst they didn't have the

greatest sort of trading updates a couple weeks back and then you saw um sort of guitar stop um

sending a gas across because of the war in the Middle East um and that was sort of they like

saving grace at the time you know there was because obviously gas prices went high there was a

knock on effect on coal and that's sort of what's caused the stocks to squeeze about 50 percent in

over a week um so you know now that you get in a bit of a preview in the energy space how long

it lasts who knows it depends um but yeah a bit of profit taking coming through I was surprised

by Sassel only done a percent at the end of it oil down seven percent odd because you said you

would have expected a bit more pain um but let's see it's an interesting one yeah um a GDP figures

out today uh quarter the fourth quarter of last year so uh October to December our economy grew

by 0.4 percent so for the whole of last year 1.1 percent and I I should remind myself that the

first half of last year was very different to the second half of of last year I suppose the big

question really is is there any sign that there is actual momentum it does feel like it um you

know said the market didn't really react too much too much to the prints today but it's encouraging

we've been to average in below 1 percent for one all right so it's nice to get across to get a new

big figure come through um you know the momentum's there I mean you know we've had positive signals from

the budget speech that we had and so not as well um you know it just needs to carry through but

when you get a curveball or these sort of existential shocks like um the conflict in the Middle East

it does throw a bit of a curveball you know I think there are a couple of headlines saying that any

sort of rate cuts by the subs priced out at the at this point at this juncture but things are

dynamic so you know all we need is a bit more peace and maybe that changes a bit richer now I'm

encouraged by that I do think that we'll get more positive GDP points Anthony Modassani thanks so

much senior equity sales trader at abscess C.I.B. bringing the time to 630 the money show with

Stephen Krutters on 702 702 24 minutes now to 7 the time you know sometimes something happens in

economics that makes no sense um and in a way the whole book free economics you might have

might have read a came out oh 20 years ago but it explains decisions that don't seem to make

sense and this is one that that struck me as like that you know the weight loss drugs they've

got a technical name GLP dash one but you know you know you you know the ones um what's a quarter

cent pick and all of those right among jarro and all the others so has they been coming in in

particularly in uh richer societies than ours and uh the US and Europe some companies alcohol

companies chocolate companies have been very worried about it now lint which is you know a chocolate

company and not just a chocolate company a very expensive chocolate company let me just make that

clear he says sometime after valentine's day they say that their sales among their market of

chocolate are up and in fact people who've been taking the weight loss drugs the GLP dash one

drugs have been buying 17% more chocolate whereas their or lint chocolate at least whereas among

people who were not using the drugs they increased was only six and a half percent now i'm at a

loss to explain that one i don't know do you think if you take the drug and you lose weight now you

have a license to have more chocolate please explanations it is the burning economic question of

the hour oh seven two seven oh two one seven oh two seven oh two steven is on x add

steven chrude is 18 minutes to seven the timer remind if you've got some insight into why it is

that people taking weight loss drugs are more likely to eat lint chocolates please oh seven two

seven oh two one seven oh two new cause on her double one double eight three oh seven oh two and

oh two one four four six oh five six seven maybe they feel they're allowed maybe maybe

there's some drug interaction i don't know but i can't for the life of me

imagine what the real reason could be it might well be something else i mean maybe there's

something to do with the fact that lint is very expensive the weight loss drugs are very expensive

i don't know but any thought that you have as to why it is that people on these drugs are more likely

to eat chocolate i just can't figure it out seven oh two seven oh two steven is on the money

shell six to eight p.m. the property company attack they own the more of africa they're developing

waterfall city they're reporting their occupancy increasing to nearly 94 percent they've increased

their distributable income per share by over five percent peter de villiers as the chief financial

officer at attack a peter good evening and thanks for your time you've been able to increase your

occupancy you've been building quite quickly at waterfall city what's it been like finding occupants

for the site there even it's it's been i think wonderful the unique value proposition

obviously we've got a lot of we've done some residential developments recently we've only recently

done speculative office that's in obviously office development where we don't have a tenant when

we start and that that completed it sort of towards the end of last year our financial year and

fold up quite nasty in which that we we dream that another office development uh what we call

gateway east about ten thousand squares of office and that's also been recently up quite nasty so

we i think the office market is still very competitive very tough there's four vacancies we do

go ahead to the center and then other surrounds and uh but i think everyone seen that there has

definitely been a much firmer focus on returning to work from everyone there are definitely

hybrid models actually and that's helping drive office demand it's interesting because i mean

from what i understand of some of your competitors own property in sinton they still have relatively

high vacancy rates i mean is it the traffic maybe i mean is there something in that that's even

driving through traffic now at certain times just makes you want to oh i won't complete that sentence

but do you know what i mean peter i i sit in traffic every day and i can't complain because that means

people are going back to work so i think none of us like traffic and and that was probably the one

of the perks of of lockdowns that uh you could pretty much drive anywhere and have a reasonable time

and expectation when to get there but so traffic is definitely back with that these people are back

in the office and and to be honest we love it um um you've been able to improve your trading

density at the mall of africa people are spending more money there now i must tell you peter i

i have a friend who says he never takes the family to more live africa because he can never find

his car afterwards um is there a vibe to that mall that's drawing shoppers in is it working as a retail

center i mean it considering the sheer size of it i mean obviously it it must be in a way but i

sometimes wonder if it's almost you know too big to sort of be seen as one more it is a large

more obviously not the largest in the country but was the largest book in the single phase so

coming in around about 130 000 squares um i think the nice thing is that because it is a super

regional at functions and it cases to a very large variety in a large audience so i think as

males or maybe say we go in the the almost hunt and hit and run side and other people want to

wander through the mall and hopefully we've got a broader pill for everyone but it definitely

functioned very well 10 years old and um we all looking at refreshing it in parts and and

moving things around but we'll have to uh announce that in in future once i apply our plans of

finalize but definitely functioned very well and we're very proud and happy to to have an

asset of that caliber you've been investing in more water tanks for your centers and i can see

why you would need to do that um how expensive is that it must cost you something i mean you would

you would think and certainly running a mall you know sometime ago you'll think well all i need to

do is make sure the plumbing is sorted out and the council has the capacity now you have to make

sure yourself really that your malls and developments have enough water correct and uh and there's

both pros and cons to that obviously if you where i mean we put we've put that back up water in all

of ours it's not all of them are new and and and and best of breed if i can call that they

fantastic malls but some of them are a bit older the the advantage of of developing waterfalls

we get to try and put in something from the start rather than retrofit it so we have invested

very heavily in water it's and it was something that we started doing thankfully before there was

this last protected pair of water artisans and great to Johannesburg and it's definitely paying

dividends it does mean that our initial returns are not great but uh or not as good as it could be

because you're putting more capex in but we are finding now resilience and and sustainable

it's your definitely very hard on on tenants uh wishless uh there's no point in having an

office if you don't have water and um water's one thing that cannot be produced so it's paying

off well i mean we we're going to sink a hundred million into capex in our operational portfolio not

all of that is for water but i think given by in by the end of 2026 or just after we're going to have

let's see twelve mega liters of storage so we've we've more than doubled that in in the last while

and that we get to build that spec into our new developments going forward as well

yeah it's interesting the things you have to do you you know that maybe you wouldn't

have thought of doing earlier other services you need from councils i mean obviously electricity

you'll do the same thing you'll try and generate as much of your own as you can as you can

do you try and minimize your exposure to councils and i say this because in some areas

a service delivery really is very weak it is a it is a problem in South Africa we we definitely do try

make sure we resilience so you can have an almost always on mentality and that does mean putting

PV on the roofs that does mean putting extra backup water but more than that it does also mean

working as closely as one can with council and fostering a very strong and close your

relationship with them uh for instance in the border waterfall area we've been working with

council and we'll be contributing to some additional water for the greater area which will help

us as a developer in the area as well that does mean we we're contributing towards a new water

town area at 10 MHz water tower so it does definitely require a landlord being much more skilled

in in in a broader variety of areas than say not 20 years ago they are they are the challenges

to solve but they enlarge the opportunity as well um Peter David is thank you so much chief

financial officer of attack interesting just to see the waterfall area i mean uh i've sort of

been through that area only a couple of times for various reasons uh there's a sporting complex

there there's a car licensing center there uh what have you found when you've been there why have

you decided to actually start working there be good to hear from you on 072702 uh 1 702 11 minutes

now to 7 o'clock the money for steven proctor is brought to you by app cell corporate and investment

banking proud sponsors of gtr africa 2026 enabling trade flows for growth absences originated at fsb

i saw today the new plan uh to sort out uh home affairs well the new plan to sort out home affairs

but the new plan that essentially means you'll be able to go to a bank and be able to not sort of

have to apply for the id but to go and do it immediately now in the past what i mean is you used

to have to make an appointment so you'd be able to go to some bank branches uh but you would have

to go to the home affairs website first to make an appointment you'd have to pay there then you would

go to the branch i have to say in my experience a couple of years ago i found a very cumbersome very

difficult if something happened mid application uh there there was sort of no way to get back to it

you couldn't find and then you couldn't do anything else you you you know you had to sort that

out first and you just couldn't sort of block it properly and and unblock it was quite difficult

and this would get around all of those things um and so the idea essentially is it'll only be i

think 17 uh 11 branches now um is that you'll be able to go in and sort of do it almost immediately

um and once you've got the it right there should really be no reason uh not to do that so quite

excited to see how that's changing i think that's going to be a very interesting thing your experience

of that please and while i'm asking you for that um i asked you on 072721702 about people who are

taking your on weight loss drugs but eating more chocolate i think people are more worried about

putting on weight and keeping the weight off than they are worried about diabetes because you know

if you have a way to use ozampic to control your weight or use your weight and then you

indulge as much as you can in sugar and you're not gaining any weight from that sugar you

consuming because you are using ozampic to manage your weight or lose weight then that means

where does all that sugar go then uh isn't it going to cause your diabetes i wonder you know

and people should look at other risks you might not be gaining weight but there's another risk

that will be involved in you taking this excessive sugar yeah very interesting i mean look

and the gpl1 drugs the weight loss drugs are sort of were formerly diabetes drugs so

i suppose you'll be alright but i think you're right in a way people are doing this to look

rather than their health i mean which is the primary motivation isn't it isn't interesting isn't it

new changes now coming through to the act that governs the international trade administration

commission they'll give the commission new powers including the power to take into account

what happens when products made here are being displaced by imports as well as the impact of

South African jobs when a particular product is being imported in greater numbers the chief commissioner

at the international trade administration commission is ayabonga kawa a chief commissioner good

evening and this would appear to give you and your commission greater powers what it mean for example

that you might be able to intervene in the car industry which seems to suddenly be suffering from

from cheap imports well good evening to you Stephen and good evening to listeners and thanks

as always for having us on the show i don't know if it gives us much greater powers

Stephen but what it does do is to at least give some legislative underpin

to embolden cabinet and the minister to instruct us to undertake investigations

around national security and i think the matter you raise about the displacement

of domestic production relates to the amendment that is proposed in section six of act

to allow the minister to use his powers to regulate imports to protect the national security

interests of the country you mentioned the automotive sector i think it is one of many sectors

that is subject at the moment to a chronic overcapacity globally and where you have got that

experience manifest in the displacement of existing domestic capabilities at a time where i think

supply chains in very rapid succession in the last decade or so have found themselves

different inflection points choke points and global supply chains which undoubtedly make not

only jobs and investment vulnerable but even access to vital supplies that are crucial

to the health safety and security of our people and even the functioning of the government so

so the sense is that certainly where these amendments to pass and be ascended into as law

that they would certainly be a qualitative improvement in the landscape of tools

that the cabinet and even the minister would have in instructing the commission to undertake probes

of different types into foreign trade practices and any trade flows that may have bearing

on our national security a national security can be defined very narrowly in other words it can

mean someone literally coming in trying to invade out through a border or from the sea

or it can be defined very broadly it can say well we think that this person is flooding our economy

with cheaper goods of some variety in a bit to create mass unemployment etc is there a

a tight or a loose definition of it in the act in the proposed changes i should say

what the act yeah i guess the act takes a much broader definition in line with the the South

African government's own definition has released in the draft national security strategy that

was released in the second part of last year to incorporate not just typical combative defensive

or even military interests but to expand and widen that even to the security as i said of supply

of vital goods crucial to the health safety and security and well being of South Africans more

broadly and even critical infrastructure it's not a novel thing that South Africa does in defining

it broadly in that way you would know even that the WTO framework the multilateral order emerging

as it did from following the Second World War allowed in article 21 many countries to define

their own national security and have exceptions to the general agreement on trade and tariffs

and some of the early examples of countries using that one example we came across was of Ghana

uh using uh national security reason to ban import from Portugal at a time when Portugal

storm maintain colonies like Angola and Mozambique and in southern Africa and they ostensibly were

arguing that their own national interests and security interests were i guess adversely impacted

by having a belligerent presence of uh uh a looser phone colonists in close proximity or in the

coastal belt of of the area that they found themselves in so i think you've had many manifestations

of this more recently uh the use of section 232 by the United States authorities and increasingly

even the use uh as we see uh in uh the EU uh out of Brussels many different

manifestations of national security considerations in trade so so i think in a way these amendments

flow not only from our national security strategy but i think are very much also part of the time

that we find ourselves in um in a context where of course the multilateral trading order has always

had to contend with um national security issues and security exceptions um from the reports i've seen

you might also get more powers to enter and search the property i mean i don't know if that's

exciting um well i i'm not sure we're gonna get more powers i think with the the powers though would

allow us arising from our enforcement work which has been in play certainly for for the last

25 years and even in predecessor acts of the board of trade and that tariffs that was being called

but what's different now Stephen on the enforcement work in our search and feasible work is that

we now have been given an explicitly just little frame to allow for the disposal of any

seized goods um in instances where that was not unclear or i guess uh inadequately covered in

the past legislation the other element is that uh these amendments may also allow us to

levy administrative penalties in lieu of any other sanction that may have been arrived at in the

old legislation by the high court or any other julie authorized um uh i guess uh platform uh or

even uh a court that would um decide on any of the matters of flowing from act 71 of 2002 so

i think there are those operational changes that uh will give some uh a legislative underpin to our

work even that on reciprocal commitments or even public interest you've often asked me on the

show um when you make tariffs decisions what impact do you envisage for consumers or even downstream

users uh well the amendments are very explicit now uh if you look at the amendments in section 16

that we now have to look at that uh you know as you undertake an investigation look at the impact on

domestic industry consumers downstream users something made very explicit uh which was certainly not

there in our regulations or in our legislation before hi abangakrowa thank you very much indeed chief

commissioner of the international trade administration commission a few seconds after seven o'clock

and now the money show with Stephen credits on seven oh two let's walk the tool for money show with

Stephen criticism brought to you by absent corporates and investment banking proud sponsors of GTR

Africa 2026 enabling trade flows for growth absent is originated fsb a seven minutes after seven

the time uh we'll be speaking in a moment about the two-part system and you know when the two-part

system first came in there lots of different predictions how many people would be taking money out

how many wouldn't uh would it be particularly big would it be a particularly small i think in the

aim the people who said everyone who can take money out will because people are so desperate for

money i think they're right i think that's where we are and i realize it's early days we probably

need to give this thing five maybe ten years to run before we really know i mean there is an

upside to it which of course is that people are keeping two-thirds of their money in return but i do

just worry that what we're seeing is people just take it out whenever they can since the start of

the two-part system uh professor rot into indingui he'll be in in a few moments to tell us what's

happening across our continent then uh Warren ingram back on personal finance he's been away for

a little while um he will be talking about why loyalty is costing you money i don't just mean to

your football team i mean financially uh here's a particular reason as to why but i think it could be

quite interesting if you have any kind of insurance or bond or anything like that uh just stick around

to make sure you listen to Warren or you download the podcast and listen to him tomorrow i think you

might find that it's really quite useful nine minutes now after seven the money show with Stephen

live on ninety two point seven and one oh six fm streaming on the prime media plus nap and dstv channel

eight five six well some of the big financial institutions are ready reporting large numbers of

people trying to access their savings pot under the new two-part pension system in this of course

since the start of the tax year at the beginning of march vicki liner is ahead of solutions

enhancement at Alex Forbes vicki good evening thanks for your time we're what 10th of march you've

had a hundred and forty thousand claims already is that more than you were expecting

yes good evening um well we were expecting a spark at the start of all the tax year but there's

definitely been a marked and very sharp increase in claims in that in this first week to put the

number into perspective march twenty five and so the beginning of the previous tax year

we we received just over ninety five thousand claims so this time we're getting a hundred forty

thousand in in the first week i mean that is a large number is it the same people coming back

each time i mean are you finding that the people who really sort of claimed first time round

are then the ones who come say almost immediately yes that is what we have found when looking at

the analysis um historically um what we are going to do though is we're going to look at the

dates over the course of of march because obviously it's still quite early days um we're still

getting a lot of claims in every single day so we will have a look at what that overlap looks like

but you know based on previous analysis uh these definitely a high level of repeat claims meaning

that people are claiming in any given opportunity which is once in the tax year at least um this

sort of is predicted wasn't it i mean i realized everybody had different sort of predictions about

what would happen when we brought it in but it seems in the end so many people are so desperate for

money uh that they literally don't have a choice and and this will continue i mean there's no real

prospect of that changing sure so the trend will continue um you know what we have found in our

previous survey which is um you know it's it's quite positive i mean members are at least

applying their minds to it so we don't get the sense that members are blindly claiming from their

retirement funds they seem to be aware of the tax consequences and seem to be aware of the

among them these actions on their retirement it's just said that people are in a position

preparing to pay their retirement funds roll in the end with the easy being towards their

retirement um but you know the financial pressure is real and you know people are obviously

contemplating their options but unfortunately quite a large portion claiming um definitely not

expecting that trend to significantly shift at least not in the short term there's so many

different ways of looking at this but two major ways i mean the one way you could say the systems

of failure people are going to retire with a lot less money because they're taking out you know one

third of it every year the other way is to say the system is working because people are forced to

keep two thirds of it and that stops one of the big problems we had before this was brought in

which was that people were quitting their jobs to access their pension exactly so you know the

reform is ultimately doing what it intended to do and that was to solve you know the longer-term

preservation issue you know as you've pointed out previously when changing jobs members could

take everything out of their retirement funds now at least the two thirds that has been going

into the retirement pots in September 24 when this new system was introduced that money is there

to stay invested and preserve until a day of retirement and at that point men are having to

annulatine so you know the new regime is expected to deliver two to two and a half times better

retirement outcomes than the old regime ultimately but it will take you know time for the benefits

to come through because obviously we're talking about a new regime from a from appointing time

going forward we're not trying to solve the past in the in the new regime if you know what I mean

so the vested pots the money that was accumulated before September 24 that is still

actually accessible to people when they resign and that's also going to have big implications

for retirement outcomes which is which is why we needed a new regime. I mean I realize it's all

still new are there any obvious tweaks that you might make at this point I mean I know at some point

someone might want to start a conversation because I mean there's a lot of union pressure to

bring this in people wanted to access their pensions are completely understand why and you could

you could easily argue well maybe the ratio needs to change instead of being one third two thirds

it should be something else one way or another other people might say what we actually need to do

is to find some other kind of retirement saving that can be added to this and some people might

just say you know what I just need all of my money and I need it now. Are there any obvious

tweaks that you've seen at this stage for you or is it just so too soon too new because if I

remember this has hardly been done anywhere I don't think it's actually been done somewhere else.

Yeah I think this two-pot system is fairly unique I'm not too sure of any other systems of

hand you know they might exist but I'm not too sure of hand but yeah it's unique in the sense

that it is giving you that balance some access but trying to preserve the majority of

contributions into the future. So you know with anything new you need to give it time to

settle time to sort of deliver the benefits that's intended to but I'm sure that it would be

merit in relooking at a few things to see how we can improve on the system you know to the future

but we don't want to I don't think it's necessary prudent to start tweaking too prematurely.

No sure I mean you need to give things time to bed down the suspensions it's a kind of generational

thing there's so much to it. This must all be costing you as Alex Forbes so you would have

had to change your fee structure a little bit because when this was all introduced you know people

were putting money in they would be a cost of putting money in and then it would kind of stay

there until it came out again. Now you've got multiple transactions I know that would have been

accounted for but you had to make big changes to the way things operate when this happened

and I presume by now things are moving very smoothly but it still was a cost to you.

Yeah so you know for the retirement industry as a whole including Alex Forbes a lot had to be

invested into you know systems communication education everything that comes with a whole new

reform you know this was not just a simple tweak in legislation a very different way of you

know being able to do claims processing it's at big scale large scale being able to do that

accurately and you know and for to comply so it was a very complex reform did come at big cost

but it's solving ultimately a very important problem so I think you know from a cost benefit

analysis perspective this is definitely a big problem with solving and of course it does

ultimately come with cost at the end of the day yeah yeah so much to it Vicky Langer thanks so much

head of solutions enhancement at Alex Forbes just interesting to see how it all pans out as I say

pensions generational takes a while but you all thought so far on the two-pot system 17 after 7.

The money show I'm a good business focus with professor we've got to change us on thing every time

I have to change it professor Rotindo and Dingery the founding director of tribe Africa advisory

and author of rumble in the jungle reloaded house of Rotindo okay there's a lot going on in our

continent and I do want to talk about Ghana but can we just start with the impact of the Iran war

yeah I mean having a big impact on the Middle East economies we look at oil prices we looked at

them two days ago and went oh my word it's come down a lot since then and that's and that's

our economy but I mean many African economies dependent on oil imports others have oil but

can't refine it yeah I mean sort of what are the first things that strike you so Steven a very

important point obviously especially in this time in terms of what's happening from a geopolitics

perspective but the Middle East itself and I'm specifically talking about the UAE Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia and Qatar over the last 10 years they've invested plus or minus a hundred billion

U.S dollars on the African continent yeah and I mean a big player for the UAE is DP world I mean

we know it is a big place of Africa but if you look at the big ports that they're running in

Mozambique if you look at Senegal in Egypt they're quite significant players I mean if the UAE

it's estimated they probably invested about 59 billion years dollars with the last 10 years

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia probably about 26 billion and Qatar 7 billion and this is the area of

energy infrastructure just to name a few but some three key projects just to zoning that the UAE

or the Middle East is significantly invested in Africa and obviously this will be affected going

forward with regards to the war in the Middle East DRC if you look at the energy transition minerals

that they've got your copper your cobalt 21 billion U.S dollars in Mozambique the Middle East again

if you've invested in the LNG project about 20 billion U.S dollars and UAE in South Sudan

in a humanitarian fund of about half a billion U.S dollars again so against even obviously

these are significant projects from the past but going into the future it was estimated

another hundred billion U.S dollars but again everything is going to slow down a bit because of

this war Steven so a big concern from an Africa perspective it's also a reminder I mean one of

the problems that we have is that there are things that we depend on the world sort of needs to

flow in a particular way this is a big shock to that it's a big shock to that and the leading

actually if you look at the Middle East and I'm talking about the UAE followed probably by Qatar

in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia when it comes to the the large infrastructure projects they've been

they've taken the lead now over China and and Europe with regards to year and year growth

so definitely they're going to be ramifications of the war and we already know from an oil price

perspective what's happening in the Amaz and the dynamics of that but it's something to watch

and I think more importantly something for the African countries to start saying okay you know

prepare for the shocks because they are going to be there it might be short term it might be

long term but ultimately the war has always consequences and a war of this nature when you find

big players like the U.S. Israel playing into it it's going to have a significant impact so

from a strategy perspective you know Africa has to look at this and say how do we adapt to

Coordini. So men's become a big issue here we produce a lot of cement but we also very worried

about imports in Ghana they've started a clay-based cement facility. Yeah Steven it's a it's a significant

investment I think it's over 110 million U.S. dollars praise the Muhammad just commissioned

the plant it's going to be the largest clay-based cement facility and it's going to be industrialization

but with the low carbon manufacture requirements so that's a great thing the company that's evolved

to this is called CBI it's a malgommation between a Swiss Denmark and then the Ghanaian government

they expect to produce about 1.5 million tons of cement and 400,000 tons of of carcinated cement

which is which is key for in terms of clean clean production over and above this even not

is it only a big cement manufactured in plant or probably the biggest in the world it'll also

produce about a thousand one hundred jobs so a lot of positives and I think the big thing besides

the reduction in in terms of the carbon footprint because it's estimated probably about seven to

eight percent of the global carbon footprint comes from manufactured cement so obviously this

is gaining the right direction but ultimately from an Africa perspective Steven it's always a good

story when we manufacture we import less and we drive industrialization and create jobs that's

always a good story in Africa. A British company a British international investment they're buying

big and zambian beef. Zambia actually was a client of mine Zambia focuses on beef

well I didn't think they were a vegan specialist but BIA which is the British international

investment company Steven I think used to be called CDC previously they share hold enough 17.5

they have up to 59 percent because they just want to make a positive impact not only on zambia

but in southern Africa they also want to expand in other markets which includes

Sierra Leone, Zambia, DRC in Ethiopia and 60 percent of their portfolio with regards to this Steven

is in terms of growth and also investing in renewables agree and climate related projects so

there's a total of about 13 billion US dollars they've already invested in but ultimately Zambia

Steven probably studied 1994 it's been a good stock it's listed both in the Uliusaka stock exchange

and the UK stock exchange and it's one of those zambian stories that has grown well and is

diversified well so it's just this just shows again UK investment in Zambia and Zambia is a great

opportunity for investment with a Zambia story Steven. In East Africa Indonesia wants to increase

its goods that are going through Kenya's port of Mambasa. Yeah so Mambasa just to give some

context is probably the busiest port in East Africa and for most of the landlocked countries

like Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and DRC it offers a source of export destination and import obviously

destination as well. Kenya predominantly exports to Indonesia. Indonesia is a small country but also

part of the Asian market at TN coffee but at the same time from Indonesia they import palm oil,

textiles and manufacturing products so the strategic alignment is just so that it can be a win-win

scenario obviously and Indonesia is wanting to invest more in terms of Mambasa and the opportunity

provides just with regards to penetrating the rest of the African market especially the East African

market so to be good to see how that goes but quite a significant win-win for both Indonesia and

Kenya. And there's a fashion designer from Gazon from Gabon who's been bringing this is a

fashion term. Raffia? Raffia and the gentleman's name is Shoshou Lazar and Raffia is material that

you produce from palm leaves and this gentleman it's a nice entrepreneurial story and he initially

started designing outfits for his mother and his grandmother and over the years he's become quite

a successful fashion entrepreneur. He's won awards recently at the Paris fashion awards annual

fashion competition and there was another one two years ago called the Saint TN International

Design Benil in France. It's very famous very French in the way the length of the name is but

ultimately Lazar from an entrepreneur perspective he's used the basic compound which his palm leaves,

he doesn't dye them, he makes upmarket dresses from them and is even presented to President

Macron in France each of his achievements. So it's a great story of an African story using African

products going global and he continues to rise. So Raffia is the material used from the palm

leaves and is making a global impact and the men is from Gabon. Sure, so interesting, thanks very

much indeed Professor Atindo Andingui, the vani director of Tribe Africa advisory and author of

the book Rumble in the Jungle Reloaded. Well it's been a little while but I'm pleased to tell you

that Warren Ingram is back. He's a certified financial planner at Galileo Capital. Warren good evening

I'm not going to ask you where you were I'm just glad to see that you're back with us. Well maybe

he isn't back with us. I don't know. As he extended his holiday is it's so good that you just

decided actually now I'm going to come back to work. What would I what would I do on a Tuesday

even if I be bored to tears? No money show. Well wouldn't we all? Okay, well welcome back.

Tonight we're talking about why loyalty could be costing you money and I mean I mean I

immediately think of people who spend money on the same football team year after year. You're

talking specifically around financial institutions. Exactly right. I think it's one of those things

where we we find it so difficult to change banks or change insurers that once we're in we tend

to stay and they even have a phrase for it it's called inertia and what you'll find is if you've

been with the same bank or the same insurance company for a number of years there's a very good

chance that that you're probably overpaying for the services that that you are getting now

and and equally a fairly good chance that you could shop around get the same level of services

and and products but but at a better price from a competitor of this. Okay so I mean part of this

right is just that the some of the product providers that do quite a lot to get you to come I mean

they want to hook you and they're all sorts of offers when you do that. Yeah I keep thinking

you know they're insurance companies that will pay you just to give you a quote so they'll give

you cash simply to ask them to quote on your insurance even if you don't move and and I mean that's

a literal cost that they're actually paying you to try to try them out and and if you think

about banks I can't tell you how many times I've been suckered by loyalty programs where you know

you get to fly around the world 17 times upside down if you swap banks and you do this or that

that the same with insurance companies where you know if you if you shop in a certain place and

you exercise in a certain way you get to do lots of interesting things and and all of those happen

at the start of a cycle so when the when the bank or the insurance company is deciding that they

you know whether it's to get more current accounts or to get more mortgages or whatever the deal is

more more medical aids or whatever that then they make the deals very attractive and so in a way

they're either literally by business or they cut their prices so low and make themselves so

attractive that they draw sort of the bees to the flower and once you're in it's quite difficult

to leave because of this inertia thing so I mean does that mean that once they've got you in they

actually know they're going to be able to charge you more down the line they'll be able to increase

their prices yeah I mean if like me you're your kind of personal admin isn't isn't the best

and you know the prospect of having to shop around for a new bank account or a new insurance

company seems incredibly daunting the likelihood is that even if the the product provider that you're

with starts to make you grumpy because they increase the fees but faster than inflation they take

away a few extra services which were really nice and probably attracted to be in the first place

it takes you a long time to actually decide to shop around number one and then number two

to go through the pain of of actually making a change so so what the institutions are relying on

is they they're going to attract a large number of people through the door nowadays it's a

lit a figurative door it's an electronic door and and then they know that because of inertia you're

going to stick around and even if they lose a few clients you know five or 10% of the the people

they've attracted they've got a large number of them you know on their books now and gradually over

time they start to reduce the services that are for you they make the loyalty programs slightly

less attractive and and the fees go up a little bit and and you know that incremental friction

every single year is irritating but they don't make such a radical change that you shift in a year

that you find that it happens over three four five years where eventually you might be prodded

to make a change so I mean loyalty programs are a very good indicator of something if you know

the the promises are too good or they start to get lower and lower your benefits don't really

make sense anymore yeah this this for me is the you know is the thing so so when you see these

programs especially in the early days there are incredibly attractive and and so you know it makes

sense to shift and and so you do and you and you move move from you know bank aid to bank B or

you change medical aid or short term insurance provider and once you're in I think my my first

points to anybody is be be very careful and very clear as to what it is that you you've been offered

of what why have you made the change and and then track that from one year to the next and

but when you start to see that that you know that loyalty program which is award winning and you

know attracting lots of interest but when it starts to slip and and you start to realize that

actually you know potentially the loyalty program is not rewarding behavior that you know maybe

you don't want to do for example you know for me I'm not going to borrow a lot of money so if my

banks loyalty program is now incentivizing me to get more credit cards and get more debt well that's

not good for me I don't want to do that and and so I'm going to monitor that loyalty program very

carefully and when I see the benefits reducing it becomes a great signal for me to shop around because

I think I can probably get a better deal from a different bank and and sometimes it's not always

the new banks sometimes it's the old banks that want to refresh their client base but but I

am going to shop around and and and and look at and and see what I can get elsewhere. We're

speaking to Warren and Grim the co-founder of Galileo Capital your questions for him tonight on

OWA 1W30702 and 021446567 voice notes 2 on 072721702 the cost of staying loyal tonight subject

banking products it's just focused there for a minute Warren I mean they they and I sort of

I mean I'm guilty of this too you have lots of different fees for different types of accounts

and you know and actually with a little bit of research you can see what the differences are

and what do you really need? Yeah and it's it's so interesting you know I mean now we're going to have

to go back a little while ago but but if you think about when when Capitech arrived on the market

you know we we had the established banks and and and they were you know they were delivering a

set of services and all of a sudden this challenger bank arrives and and offers very low fees and

and then you know people that were you know in mid mid income or high income products would be going

well the service is going to be terrible so I'm not shifting you know I don't care how low the

price is it's going to be the awful and and what what happened actually was the opposite that you

know the challenger bank delivered good service and and so that's happened again and again we've

seen more and more banks coming coming on to market and and challenging the established operators

and now you know funny enough Capitech is not a challenger it's an established very large

you know competitor and there are other people out there you know other banks doing doing the job

now and and so for me you know the the call message here is when you see what's on offer do you

need something more complex than a very basic savings account you know credit card and and and

the like you know very often you get you get charged for a private banker and and you know a lot

of the time when you phone the private banker they're never available and you get directed to a call

center so you don't have a private banker what you've got is a call center and and you're being

charged potentially five six seven hundred grand a month for for somebody either it's actually not

there to help you there they're they're going to direct you to a call center and in in my my

experience of this is to say be very clear that you're you're paying then for something that's

maybe you know a little bit of ego and that's fine or are you paying because you want to you know

get get a better lounge when you're flying or what's the deal but is it worth the money you're paying

potentially you get a very low cost account that delivers all the services that you need and

and then you pay for the extra things you pay for the lounge or you pay for whatever it is that

you think is amazing from the loyalty program that you used to get.

And your home loan is it worth reviewing that I mean I think a lot of us just think well

the home loan is there the ultimate in 20 years hopefully.

Yeah and and if you've been and you know our listeners of the many show would say we're not paying

off over 20 years we're going to pay it off over eight or 12 or something and and so

but you're right you you make the steal with the bank and you think well it's it's cost in store now

I'm going to another contract for for as long as I've got a mortgage and and I think to understand

the dynamics of how banks work there they are incredibly competitive businesses so you'll find

that you know bank A will will have a nice mortgage book and and you might be a client of bank

A but bank B decides that actually they don't have enough mortgages and and they want to grow their

mortgage book so so very often they'll go along and they'll say you know we're offering prime

minus one and a half or something you know to the right sort of profile customer usually they'll

you know that they don't want high risk credit risk customers and so you know if you've got a

history of paying off your debts it's it's really worth your while to to shop around on your mortgage

let's say not not every year I think that that would be excessive but every three to five years

and and see what interest rate you could get from from another bank and and then I think the

one thing I want to say here is it's not just the interest rate that you've got to be careful

up it'll be the fees that you you're currently paying because there will be fees as well

and then most importantly you need to know that if you're going to swap mortgages you're going to go

from bank A to bank B that means that a new mortgage has to be registered on that property and

and that means new new fees new costs new lawyers that have to be paid so it you know the interest

you know from bank A to bank B because someone saved you 0.1% interest and then you actually

realize that the fees have destroyed the benefit but shopping around very often can help you and

you get a substantial saving on on interest rates from banks that are really looking for new

customers to to offer mortgages to you so so definitely it's one of those things where it's not

just a 20 deal that you that you can't shop around you you can shop around and it it'll pay you to do

yeah it's so interesting um uh uh andre is gotten touched with the question andre's asking

with all the wars happening around the world should I still keep investing my money i'm wondering

if it would be better to de-risk my investments for a while until the world is more settled just

one of the questions coming through others coming through on OWA 30702 and 0214460567 13-minute state

sponsors of GTR africa 2026 enabling trade flows for growth absence of registered FSP

the money show personal finance with Warren Ingram well Warren who get to Andres question in a

moment first that Norman ear on the line from Joe Berg you've got a question on funeral policies for

Warren House at Norman Goverett yes I've taken out a policy about 10 years ago and what they calculated

I would be able to get 20 20 thousand rent if I if I if I if I if I if I die but at this stage

I think I've I've paid about 70 thousand rent or it would be able to to review that or

message continue until I go sure Norman yeah that's a lot of money that's gone in there uh

Warren you all thoughts on that I mean it seems that Norman's being overcharged some way if the

numbers are right yeah it's a I mean it's it's unfortunately quite common and you know it's

even with the situation Norman's and so so you're you've got to price these things regularly and I

think and Norman's question is is you know so valid to the to the conversation we're having because

I would guess if you if you shopped around for a funeral policy every couple of years

uh you you would find that you'd be probably able to get a match better price it it also points out

you know know what you're buying because if you're if you're buying a policy that's you know

that's going to cover a funeral for for 20 thousand rent uh you know the first thing I'd be doing

is to say you know can I can I build up an emergency fund for example you know that that the

family have access to to cover a funeral cost and and start saving as quickly as I possibly can

because if you can then you know can you get to that 20,000 round and then stop the funeral policy

so so I think there's two things there Stephen one is uh G shopping around would it would have

would have helped Norman a lot and and in my view uh definitely you want to shop around right now

to to check and see if you can't get you know much either eat the much more insurance in other words

you get you know 50 or 80,000 round for the same premium or if you if you're happy with 20,000

and that's that's all that's needed then can you get it at a match lower price and and I think

shopping around would help a lot and then number two please do your homework as to as to what

you're paying for and the benefit that you're getting and and see if you can't you know get get to

the point where you can cover those costs from your own savings yeah that's so interesting all right

Norman I mean does that help at all? Yeah I hope so I'm gonna try the uh the never digital

all right Norman thank you all right interesting question on the line from Joe Big

and then one under his question was around with all the wars happening around the world should I

still invest my money I'm wondering if it's better to de-risk my investments for a while

do I think that uh create a question from Andre is is uh you know lots of people are asking

variations of this at the moment and and I think if we if we had you know a sat in a conversation

like this you know mid-morning on Monday when when it felt like the oil price was you know just

on a tear up to two or three hundred dollars and you know it felt like and and markets were

imploding and in Asia it did seem and you know in in some ways that maybe we were in for some very

tough times and and maybe to talk through the journey of what happens there because you know we

we start Monday and and it looks really bad and and you know there is there is a massive humanitarian

crisis going on so so we mustn't divorce divorce ourselves from that but but when we're looking at

our investments and and markets in general uh we need to anticipate uh what will happen

slightly longer term so you know when when the new slow is really bad and it and it seems very scary

as an investor your job is to is to stop take a breath and and try and just zoom out a little bit

to say you know most of the time markets react you know in a with a little bit of panic and

once they calm down and they start to think and you know and to breathe properly and and to read

and analyze that they start to recover from that panic and and I think that's what we've seen

in the in the in the days since Mondays we've just seen the the oil price recovering you know

yes new slow has had an impact and and so you know markets have to have recovered very strongly

since then and and so I would say to people that in this kind of situation you shouldn't

de-risk your your portfolio based on a on a shock you know the the the oil price you know jumping up

because of of of a wall if the war sustained and infrastructure is destroyed that could cause

the oil price to stay high for a very long period of time but if the if the if the infrastructure is

not really badly damaged and and the war could stop very quickly uh then you've got to be very

careful of de-risking your investments so I think you de-risk your investments because you know

your in a situation like this and and potentially you were you were over invested in very risky

investments to start in other words if you're you know if you should have had 50% of your investments

in shares and you had 95 well well this is a wake up call reduce your allocation to shares but

if you were correctly positioned then you need to ride this out this is one of the storms

we knew we couldn't predict but we knew a storm would come and it arrived you've got to ride it out

yeah no um I think a lot of people are having that thought all right short-term insurance and the

cost of loyalty there uh it's quite high with short-term insurance isn't it Warren it is and

and I think that the the friction of changing is much better here so you know with a home loan you

you're going to pay lots of legal fees etc to switch but with short-term insurance it's not that

difficult you know you're typically on a man's to man's contract so if you set yourself a goal

of of of reviewing a short-term insurance once a year or once every two years and and you

you then decide to switch from one insurer to another you're not necessarily I don't think you'll

you'll be in for any kind of penalties so so you can find that you you know shopping around with

short-term insurance can save you a lot of money without having to sacrifice any you know change

in your the product that you're actually buying and and so sometimes when insurance companies say

to you look I'm terribly sorry you know your premiums gone up by 14% because of you know repair

costs of cars or inflation or whatever it is that might be true but but equally it might be another

company that's very happy to to give you the same cover at at a better price and you you absolutely

need to shop around to make sure you're getting the the right deal there um and I mean if you haven't

had a claim for quite a few years I mean obviously that makes you quite attractive to to an insurance

company is that useful? It is and and it's so interesting that short-term insurance companies very often

even have a thing called the retention department so when you tell your insurance company look I've

been a client for a long time I haven't claimed and I want you to review my policy or I'm going to

move they're often transfer you to the retention department where they will you know renegotiate

you know and and drop your premium so so it's certainly worth asking the existing insurer because

you know they've done all the hard work of getting you on board yes there might be relying on

inertia but if you push back hard enough that there might give you a better deal equally you need to

be prepared to to make the move then and and and go somewhere else if if you're not going to get a

better deal and you know you can get one elsewhere you need to watch the season sees too?

Yes the one thing here that that really worries me is you know let's say you've got you know

comprehensive insurance on your car and it's costing you 3000 and a month and then another insurance

company says don't worry I'll give you insurance on your car and it'll only cost you 500

and a month that that's such a massive difference you need to make sure that you're comparing apples

with apples are you replacing comprehensive insurance for example with only third party where you know

they're not going to look after your car at all they'll only look after the car that you drove into

if it was your accident so so I think you've got to make sure that you you are checking that these

and making sure that if you're shopping you're getting the same level of cover and and all the

things that you were offered from from the first company you are being offered by the second company

and if it's a better premium then by all means move but but if it's half the price you need to be

very careful there might be something that you're not being covered with Warren we've got literally

a minute and a half left but levels phone from Kruger's store and and level quickly if you can please

your questions about the bonds property bonds yeah I wanted to check if you have a bond with

bank and then you want to apply for a better bond and the other bank gives you a better interest

than a better value how does it impact you to take the other bond the bond that is existing and

magic with the federal bond that you need it level I think it does level thank you Warren

yeah I mean if you can if you can it's it sounds to be almost like you consolidate the two together

and and if you're getting a better rate of interest at the at you know the second bank then

that's certainly going to help you on on the cost of all of the debt so so it might help just be

careful of the of all of the other costs that we spoke about earlier in the show Warren

Grim thank you so much really good to have you back the co-founder of Galileo capital as glad you're

able to answer levels question of course Normans as well but personal finance will be podcast

if you miss something and just want to listen to it again if you were the one who asked a question

and just want to listen to it again might be worth doing that the money show Stephen

Cortes is brought to you by apps are corporate and investment backing proud sponsors of GTR

Africa 2026 enabling trade flows for growth absences originated at fsb well a statement out

tonight from our department of mineral mineral and petroleum resources just reassurance really

that we do have adequate levels of petroleum product in the country reminded to that some of

the crude much of the crude air that we have in our refineries actually comes from west Africa and

of course that the secunda coal plant is still working at the moment also optimistic of a sort of

solution to the conflict in the Middle East we'll have to see about that meanwhile in the U.S.

markets turning positive for the first time in a while the Dow Jones up 0.7 the Nasdaq up 0.68

the S&P 500 up 0.5 on that positive note we'll say goodbye see you tomorrow good evening it's 8 o'clock