Free course
Introduction to Private Lending in South Africa
Twenty lessons in four parts, free, with nothing to sign up for. There is no schedule: each lesson teaches on its own in about ten minutes, and the Association's longer pages are attached as further reading. At the end there is a short assessment and, if you pass it, a certificate — which is a record of completion rather than a qualification.
Twenty lessons, in four parts
Each lesson teaches on its own and takes about ten minutes.
What is private lending?
What private lending is, and what it is not
What am I actually looking at?
→2You are the lender, not an investor
What position does my money put me in?
→3Who's who, and how the money moves
Who are all these parties, and which one am I?
→4Why banks leave gaps, and who fills them
Why does this market exist at all?
→5Is it legal? The National Credit Act in plain language
Am I allowed to do this, and must I register?
→How does a loan work?
The main structures
What shapes does a private loan come in?
→7Pooled and co-lending: what you actually hold
If several of us fund one loan, what is mine?
→8Security: bonds, cession and suretyship
What stands behind the loan, and what is it worth?
→9When a borrower defaults
What actually happens, how long does it take, what does it cost?
→10The paperwork a sound loan has
What documents should exist, and what should they say?
→What could go wrong?
The four risks
What are the ways this loses money?
→12Illiquidity: why your money cannot always come back early
When can I get out, and what if I cannot?
→13A quoted rate is not a return
What will I actually earn, after everything?
→14Worked example: R100 000 over three years
What does this look like in rands?
→15Red flags: how schemes borrow this vocabulary
How do I tell lending from a scheme?
→How do I lend safely?
Who you are dealing with
What may a consultant tell me, and what may they not?
→17FICA: what you will be asked for, and why
Why does everybody want my documents?
→18Questions to ask before you sign anything
What do I need answered, in writing?
→19Checking someone: registers, references and badges
How do I verify the person in front of me?
→20Your first loan, and where to go next
What is my checklist?
→Where your progress is kept. In this browser, and nowhere else. There is no account, and your progress is never sent anywhere — so if you clear your site data, or open the course on another device, you will start again. The Association does count, anonymously, how far people get: that a lesson was completed, not who completed it. What that records.
How it works
It is free, and it always will be. There is no account, no email address and no payment. The Association’s constitution puts education first, and a course behind a form is not education first.
One lesson at a time, in order. A lesson is recorded when you mark it complete, and a lesson is not recorded until the one before it is. The lessons themselves stay open to read — we publish free material and hiding it would serve nobody — but the course keeps its own sequence, because lesson eight assumes lesson five.
There is no schedule. Work through it in an afternoon or over three months; the course does not mind and nothing expires. The four parts are a structure, not a timetable, and no lesson is held back from you by a date.
The assessment is 20 questions, one from each lesson. It opens once all twenty are recorded, it is marked immediately, the pass mark is 16, and every question comes back with the reason for the answer whether you got it right or not. You can take it again, and the next paper draws different questions.
The certificate is not a qualification. It records that you completed a free course and passed a self-marked assessment. It confers no status and appears on no register. What the Association does stand behind is verification, which is an assessment against published criteria — a different thing, and deliberately kept separate.
What it covers
The ten modules of the competency standard the Association’s accreditation will examine. The course is an introduction to all ten; it is not the accreditation, and completing it is not a step towards one.
- Conduct — 3 lessons
- The market — 5 lessons
- The National Credit Act — 2 lessons
- The advice boundary — 2 lessons
- FICA and client due diligence — 2 lessons
- Lending structures — 3 lessons
- Security and enforcement — 3 lessons
- Risk — 4 lessons
- Returns and arithmetic — 3 lessons
- Documentation — 3 lessons
This page explains how something works. It is not financial, legal or tax advice, it takes no account of your circumstances, and nothing here is a recommendation to lend. Private lending places capital at risk.