Nthabeleng Likotsi is building South Africa’s first black women-owned bank to empower underserved entrepreneurs through financial inclusion.
Nthabeleng Likotsi is South Africa’s first black female bank owner and the driving force behind YWBN Mutual Bank, the country’s first majority black women-owned bank. This milestone is the culmination of a 15-year effort to develop a financial system that closely reflects the needs of the community it serves.
Likotsi co-founded the Young Women in Business Network (YWBN) in 2009 with nine other professionals frustrated by how inaccessible capital and opportunity remained for black women. This business support network quickly expanded into something more ambitious. By 2015, they had launched a cooperative financial institution, a licensed CFI providing savings and loans to members, many of whom were young black women entrepreneurs.
As Likotsi studied the financial behaviour of South African women—particularly the billions of rand circulating informally through community savings groups known as stokvels—she recognised the scale of untapped economic power. These women were already investors. What they lacked was a formal vehicle built specifically for them. So she decided to create one.
In 2021, after a years-long effort and meeting all regulatory conditions set by the South African Reserve Bank, YWBN was granted a licence to operate as a mutual bank. That moment made history and set the precedent for a new kind of financial institution focused on inclusion, equity, and shared ownership.
The YWBN Mutual Bank
The YWBN Mutual Bank operates as a digital-first institution, offering mobile and online banking services across all nine provinces. It is designed for accessibility, serving customers in townships and underserved areas overlooked by commercial banks. For those unfamiliar with digital systems, the bank also runs support centres and physical offices, ensuring no one is excluded from participation.
Notably, YWBN did not rely on institutional investors to raise capital. Instead, it launched the “Own the Bank” share scheme, inviting everyday South Africans—many of whom were black women—to become shareholders. Since the CFI’s early days, the organisation has grown from 200 to 589 members and currently holds R21 million in total assets. Beyond banking, YWBN has also secured a 26% stake in Namlog, a logistics and warehousing firm, expanding its economic footprint beyond finance.
Likotsi holds a Master’s in Entrepreneurship from the University of the Witwatersrand, a postgraduate accounting certificate from the University of Johannesburg, and has completed executive education at Harvard Business School. She sits on the boards of Apex Valves and Ubuntu Plastics, and in 2014, was recognised with the Women Leadership Award at the Africa-India Partnership Summit.
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