The FICA compliance imperative

The table below shows the growth of the Who Owns Whom database in the 16 months to January 2023. The greatest benefit of this growth is enjoyed by those clients using our FICA compliance solution, WOW Data Feeds, for KYC and client onboarding processes. We currently research ownership, which is a crucial component of KYC, directly with the subject companies. This will change when the Companies Amendment Bill, which will be tabled for public comment this year, is gazetted. The Bill will require private companies to disclose beneficial ownership with CIPC which will be available to the public, as is currently the case with directors.

WOW and Amabhungane made a joint submission proposing this change to the Act, which I presented to the Standing Committee on Company Law in November 2016, and our initiative was joined by the Helen Suzman Foundation and Corruption Watch in the following year. Many affected parties have promoted the legislative change since then in order to avoid a grey listing by the global Financial Action Task Force, and South Africa is fortunate to have the able acting Treasury director-general, Ismail Momoniat, presenting our case to avoid a grey listing.

WOWEB subscribers executed 470,837 enquiries on the platform during 2022, with the table below showing the most viewed industries:

Rank	Industry Name	Country
1	The Pharmaceutical Industry in South Africa	(South Africa)
2	The Clothing Industry in South Africa	(South Africa)
3	The Telecommunications Industry and Retail of Devices in South Africa	(South Africa)
4	The Wholesale and Retail of Food	(South Africa)
5	South African Mining Industry Trends Report	(South Africa)
6	The Banking Industry in South Africa, including Stokvels	(South Africa)
7	The Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Industry in South Africa	(South Africa)
8	Freight Transport by Road in South Africa	(South Africa)
9	Trends In South African FMCG Markets	(South Africa)
10	Trends in the South African Construction Industry	(South Africa)

The recently updated Trends in FMCG report shows that at R65.3bn, edible fruit and nuts were by far South Africa’s biggest FMCG export in 2021, more than three times bigger than beverages exports of R20.6bn, cereals (R14.8bn), animal or vegetable fats and oils (R10.7bn) and preparations of vegetables, fruit and nuts (R10.7bn).

Surveys mentioned in the report show an overwhelming demand by consumers for FMCG manufacturers to act to combat negative environmental impacts in manufacturing and packaging and to adopt sustainable labour practices.

Another report published this month is Cargo Handling Storage and Warehousing, which highlights how exporters are increasingly using Maputo over South African ports due to inefficiencies at the latter, and both Maputo and Walvis Bay are expanding facilities to meet this demand. If the service decline at South African ports is not reversed soon, our neighbours will be eating our lunch.

Recently published reports can be viewed on the WOW store.

Have a healthy and prosperous 2023!