Absa takes financial literacy to TikTok with micro-drama series

Absa Group will launch a micro-drama series called For Better Or For Whatever in September 2026, moving its consumer financial education work onto TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. The bank set out the plan in a company announcement published on 26 August 2026, written by Dr Reaan Immelman, its head of financial literacy, education.

The series is built around two South African families brought together by a wedding where almost nothing goes to plan, according to the announcement. It does not teach interest rates or balance sheets. It follows how money shapes family dynamics, relationships and major life milestones, with the intention that viewers reflect on their own spending and saving.

Absa describes the format as edutainment, and the reasoning behind it is set out plainly in the announcement: traditional lectures, brochures and corporate workshops are not driving behavioural change.

Information alone will not change behaviours, we have to deliver content to where people are feeling confident around engaging with content.

The numbers behind the shift

Absa gives three figures for the state of household finances in South Africa. The national savings rate is negative, meaning the average household spends more than it earns. The household debt to income ratio sits at around 60%, so for every rand earned, 60 cents goes to servicing debt. And the estimate is that fewer than 10% of South Africans can afford to retire.

The announcement also cites industry research putting South Africa’s financial literacy score at around 52 out of 100, down from 55 on the previous reading. That decline sits awkwardly beside the volume of financial literacy content now available, which is the question the piece sets out to answer.

Immelman’s own answer is that the barrier is silence. Money remains an uncomfortable topic in South Africa, and digital peer comparison sharpens it. Social media feeds carry curated highlights of new cars, career milestones and luxury holidays, which makes individual financial difficulty feel like personal failure rather than a shared problem.

He is careful not to overclaim what education can do. The announcement acknowledges that unemployment and a cost-of-living crisis are structural realities, and states that more financial education will not change what is happening in the global economy. The focus instead is on how financial habits and behaviours are formed.

Where the content will live

Micro-dramas are serialised stories told in short vertical episodes designed for cellphones, and Absa calls the format one of the world’s fastest-growing digital entertainment categories. The series is built to be watched on a commute, shared easily and binged. The bank frames the choice of platforms as meeting audiences where they already consume content.

Absa also draws a distinction between two things it wants the series to build. Financial literacy is about everyday money decisions, from budgeting for big moments to handling unexpected expenses. Financial security is about recognising scams, protecting money and keeping personal information safe.

What the announcement does not say

The announcement gives no budget for the series and no target for reach, engagement or behaviour change. It sets out no measure by which the bank will judge whether the format worked, beyond saying it is intrigued to see how the series is received. It also does not say how the financial literacy score of 52 out of 100 was measured, or by whom, beyond describing it as industry research.

Those gaps matter for anyone assessing the claim that entertainment can do what instruction has not. A series that is watched is not the same as a series that changes what people do with their money, and the announcement offers no evidence yet that it is the second thing.

What it does offer is a clear statement of the problem, in the bank’s own figures, and a decision to spend on a different approach rather than repeat one that has not moved the numbers.