Exploring the advice gap

PROFESSIONALS: YOUTH NOT USING THEM

- Pedri Reyneke

South Africa’s financial literacy infrastructure has not kept up with how young people consume information, and that gap has consequences for all of us.

This Youth Month, it is tempting to frame this as a cautionary tale about a generation making poor choices — but it is not. It is a story about a generation that made a completely rational decision: when the system they were supposed to trust became inaccessible, expensive, or spoke a language designed to exclude them, they went to what they knew best.

They turned to platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, where financial advice — whether certified and accurate or not — is instant, relatable and freely given by so-called “finfluencers”. And increasingly, they are turning to AI too.