Top Africa Clothing Retailer Pepkor Prepares to Establish Bank Presence

A Pep store, operated by Pepkor Holdings in Boksburg, South Africa.

Photographer: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg

Pepkor Holdings Ltd. got approval from South African authorities to establish a banking presence there as the continent’s biggest seller of clothing and mobile phones using prepaid seeks to offer its millions of lower-income customers more financial services.

The retailer last month also bought a financial technology software platform to support this expansion, it said in a statement Tuesday.