Blackbullion South Africa launches Stack & Grow to redirect youth capital into real assets
Ahead of World Savings Day on 31 October, Blackbullion South Africa has announced the launch of Stack & Grow, a youth-focused movement encouraging young South Africans to move away from the lure of quick money through gambling and embrace saving, investing and healthier financial habits to build long-term financial security.
The roll-out marks an immediate, systemic response to recent findings from their Zaka Index 2.0 report, which exposed a critical trend among young South Africans, a phenomenon known as being ‘impatient with poverty’.
The report findings confirmed that 82% of young people survive on less than R6 000 a month, driving 35% to actively participate in high-risk digital betting slips and online casino apps directly from their smartphones.
The data showed that this behaviour is rarely driven by recreational greed. Instead, young adults view placing small wagers as a digitised, day-to-day survival hustle to escape hardship, resorting to digital casinos as a survival mechanism to tackle the cost-of-living crisis they are facing.
Stack & Grow is about changing the conversation from chasing quick financial wins to building small, consistent habits that can make a real difference over time.
Through the Blackbullion South Africa platform, young people already have free access to practical financial education on saving, budgeting and investing. This includes interactive learning pathways and content exploring topics such as saving versus investing, compound interest and getting started with limited money. WaFunda is a social impact enterprise that backs Blackbullion South Africa as its exclusive local deployment partner.
The movement aims to build on these existing resources, inspiring young people to take their first steps towards financial confidence while creating opportunities for more interactive campaigns, partnerships and community engagement in 2027.
“It’s not enough to tell young people to avoid gambling or risky financial decisions. We also need to show them what they can do with the money they have,” says Tshepo Kgapane, Product Lead at Blackbullion South Africa.
“The same smartphone used to place a bet can also be used to learn about saving, investing and building financial security. Stack & Grow is about making those conversations more relatable and encouraging young people to see every rand as an opportunity to build towards something bigger,” he explains.
The initiative launches its Phase 1 with a curated pilot challenging the standard procrastination cycle of waiting until a “New Year’s resolution” on 1 January to take control of personal finance. Looking ahead to 2027, Blackbullion SA plans to build on the movement through exciting collaborations with organisations working in saving, investing and financial empowerment. Existing partners include EasyEquities, through which Blackbullion South Africa users can access a free R50 investment voucher to help them get started, and Brokstock.
“Our role is to step away from moral judgments and make the opportunity costs behind every financial choice completely visible before the money moves,” says Kgapane. “When given trusted guidance and safe digital avenues, young South Africans overwhelmingly prioritise long-term stability, such as starting businesses, saving for education, and protecting family budgets, over short-term luxuries. Stack & Grow gives them the physical platform to make those choices real.”
Young South Africans can access the digital learning pathways entirely for free courtesy of the Sanlam Foundation, and track their progress here: https://blackbullion.com/connect/waflp
