On Thursday, the South African Reserve bank announced it had approved her licence to own a mutual bank."From June, we will have different types of shares to offer to different people depending on affordability,” she said.
She said while the bank was currently called YWBN, she was not sure if the name would be changed or not.“We save R1100 for five years. For loans, if you have a tender then we will fund you for up to R360 000.”“We have our offices in Edenvale, Johannesburg, but we plan to expand, and it won’t be a brick and mortar business," she said.
Likotsi said acquiring the licence was a four-year journey. “It was extremely difficult to get the licence! There are stringent requirements, which is understandable because the role of the reserve bank is to ensure you are not going to be a fly by night, that you know your story.” “Thank God we were able to overcome that, people understand that these things happen, it’s not just VBS. Other banks have failed before. We can’t carry the cross for other people forever. We need to be evaluated on our own merits,” she said.
She said to open a financial institution one needs to have a minimum number of 200 members and R100 000. She said for her institution, the number grew to 540 shareholders.