South Africa Township Firms Trapped by Lack of Credit, Scale

South Africa’s township businesses, predominately owned by the Black majority in a nation with one of the world’s widest levels of income inequality, are struggling to survive.

That’s the stark conclusion of a new report by Standard Bank Group Ltd. on the township economy. It finds that fewer than one in 10 informal businesses have access to bank credit, constraining a sector seen as a vital ladder to prosperity.