World Economic Forum on Africa

The World Economic Forum has rolled into town, complete with flashing blue lights and metal detectors at the entrances. One of the world's largest economic organisations is meeting in Cape Town from the 10th to the 12th of June 2009. Justmoney will be there reporting live on Twitter so come follow us. The Meeting is designed to look at a panalopy of economic issues that will affect your personal finance. You can still vote to put things onto the agenda. Justmoney is supporting:

• Greater bank charge transparency
• Access to credit, and
• Technology innovation

All of the topics and many more can be voted for by the public and then these will be brainstormed this afternoon the 10th of June between a quarter past one and a quarter to three. So vote now and let the debate be shaped by your concerns. The meeting is fairly high tech with social media applications in place. You can download photos and there will also be a live webcast. Justmoney will be on Twitter and the official Twitter account for the meeting will also be tweeting under the hashtag #Africa09.

One of the economic barriers in South Africa is the relatively large bank account charges that we have here. Compared to international norms we are paying way over what we should be. Institutional problems like this take a long time to resolve as the status quo is entrenched and the culture of high bank charges has already been accepted by the public for so long. Opening up true competition in the banking sector will be a boon for peoples personal finances by actually making it easy to swap your financial services provider and keep money in your pocket instead of just charged away.