They couldn’t sell Jozi?
Johannesburg, Jo’burg, Jozi - whatever you call it - has one of the proudest reputations of African cities on the continent. Over the last few years, there has been quite a lot of talk about upgrading the CBD and attracting business to the town in an effort to restore it to a “world class” African city.
But has the programme stalled?
I had an interesting chat with a banker on Friday who was telling me that while the big banks (Specifically Standard, Absa and FirstRand) all have their headquarters in Johannesburg - some are starting to look outside of JHB for some of their upmarket divisions / boutiques…
The two reasons for this are simple:
- Clients don’t want to come and see them in JHB
- Top quality staff don’t want to drive in and out of the city centre each day
Investment bankers are very much an upper end skills set and it was something I hadn’t really given much thought to. If all of your competitors are offering offices in Sandton and you are competing for the same staff, but they have to battle taxis, one way streets and crowded streets - where are they likely to go?!
I’d be interested to know what our readers think, because in my experiences over the last year or so centre of Joburg is a hell of a lot better. It’s probably not the best place to get around in, but general accessibility and business vibe seems to be better.
Agree? Disagree? Uncertain?
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Filed under: Uncategorized and tagged Banking, CBD, Finance, Johannesburg, South Africa
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