PODCAST | New index measures ability of households to manage debt

The ability of households to take on and manage debt is the central focus in this edition of Business Day Spotlight. Host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Johan Gellatly, MD of Altron Fintech, together with Dr Roelof Botha, economic adviser to Optimum Investment Group. 

This week, Altron launched a new index, called the Altron Fintech Household Financial Resilience Index (Afhri), which was created in partnership with Botha. 

The index is meant to provide insight into “the financial state of households by assessing the state of micro-lending from the perspective of the ability of borrowers to repay loans,” the group says.

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Gellatly says their unit provides software solutions for micro-lending companies in SA. Through their work, the idea for the index came after realising that micro-lending was important for many people around the country but was often ignored or not given much consideration by the mainstream financial services sector. 

Botha says the Afhri is a composite index taking into consideration 20 different factors and data sets, which adds to its overall accuracy. He hopes the Afhri will become a benchmark economic indicator in SA over time. 

Topics of discussion include: how the Afhri index was created; Altron’s reasons for creating an index; key findings from the first index results; ways in which the data can be applied in business and economics; the importance of micro lending in SA; and a preview of Altron’s other index set to be released in September. 

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• Business Day Spotlight is a MultimediaLIVE production.