Ryan Passmore - The "Missing Middle"

In this interview with BizNews, Ryan Passmore – Durban-based fintech founder of ZenFund Connect – unpacks why he believes South Africa's student funding system is broken, and how he proposes to fix it. Passmore points to the "missing middle": households earning between R350,000 and R600,000 a year, who are too well-off to qualify for NSFAS but cannot afford the R19,000 a month the University of Pretoria says it costs to put a child through an undergraduate degree. He cites stark 2026 figures – NSFAS received over 900,000 first-time applications, with more than 100,000 rejected outright, while of 500,000 continuing students assessed, only 100,000 were approved. Passmore says: "I believe the missing middle is South Africa's policy blind spot." He outlines how ZenFund Connect – a nonprofit student life ecosystem associated with the Chad le Clos Foundation, spanning South Africa's 26 public universities – aims to plug the gap through three integrated modules: finance, DHET-verified student accommodation, and career placement. Passmore argues that bursaries and loans alone will not solve graduate unemployment; only an end-to-end ecosystem that walks with the student from matric through to a job placement can shift the trajectory of the working-class families he calls the country's invisible backbone – the nurses, teachers, civil servants and small business owners whose children South Africa cannot afford to lose.

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Edited transcript of the interview

Irakli Rekhviashvili (00:01.756)

Good day. This is Irakli from BizNews. Ryan Passmore is a Durban-based fintech founder who has spent more than two decades around financial services, payments, and digital identity. He is also the founder and CEO of App Store Limited, an authorized South African financial services provider and crypto asset service provider, and the architect of ZenFund Connect, a nonprofit student life ecosystem operation that aims to plug the gap between NSFAS, the missing middle, and South Africa's 26 public universities. He says he has spent the last five years working in the South African education funding space with the past three, building ZenFund Connect, and is associated with the Chad Le Clos Foundation. He joins us this morning to talk about why he thinks the country's student funding system is broken and how he proposes to fix it.

Welcome, Ryan.

Ryan Passmore (01:02.978)

Thank you very much, rightly, for having me this morning. Much appreciated and I hope you're doing well.

Irakli Rekhviashvili (01:10.94)

Ryan, help me better understand your personal trajectory. You have the fintech background, the payment rails, the FSP license and the crypto authorization. Why have you chosen to commit your life's work to the South African student funding crisis?

Ryan Passmore (01:27.586)

Yeah, thank you very much. A very important question to start off and really it paints the picture around the South African student funding crisis, especially now in 2026 and how I've devoted the past few years to solving this equation. It is a problem that needs to be solved holistically end to end.

It cannot be solved just in isolation around student funding. So I've gone about solving it over the last few years, as I've mentioned, primarily isolating three modules, the finance module, a housing student accommodation module and then once a student has completed their studies, it's entering into the job market. So a career module as well.

So just a highlight in 2026, just some stats around where we are currently and why it is deemed a crisis. NSFAS received over 900,000 first time applications. 700,000 were approved.

Over 100,000 were rejected outright. A further 500,000 continuing students were assessed, but only 100,000 were approved. It's an easy number, but the harder number is the missing middle, and that is what I'm trying to solve with ZenFund Connect. Missing middle, who are they?

It's households earning between 350,000 and 600,000 per year. That's total household income. That equates to roughly around 19,000 rand, but take home 15,000 rand per month in household income. They do not qualify for NSFAS and state funding, and they cannot afford the 19,000 rand a month that the University of Pretoria says it costs to put a child through an undergraduate degree.

Ryan Passmore (03:43.223)

So they do not apply at all, the total. So the students really has no place to go. And I feel that the missing middle is a blind spot for the South African educational policy.

Irakli Rekhviashvili (04:05.756)

Those numbers are staggering. And when you look at that, is that a systematic system, sorry, systemic failure? Or do you see a lack of capital? Or do you see a failure of trust and transparency in the way that capital is moving? What is the, you know, when we look at the NSFAS data you mentioned, with nearly 300,000 students currently either rejected or stuck in the administrative limbo, what is causing that?

Ryan Passmore (04:35.182)

No, not at all. Quite the contrary. I believe the missing middle is South Africa's policy blind spot. NSFAS funds households below 350,000 around the year. And above that line, you are expected to self-fund. There's no middle path at the moment in a country where 350,000 around the year does not buy you what it bought you decade ago.

So I think the policies just haven't caught up to inflation and various other aspects. We've ignored it because the families in this band are invisible to most degrees. They're too well off to qualify for sympathy and too poor to qualify for relief. They are the parents, the backbone of the working class. They're nurses, teachers, civil servants, small business owners, the children of the working class.

The children are precisely the court South Africa cannot afford to lose as well. So yeah, I believe the missing middle is South Africa's policy blind spot.

Irakli Rekhviashvili (05:51.014)

Interesting and specifically regarding your platform, how does that tackle the pain point within the missing middle? How does your platform support their journey? When does it start in their journey and what is your vision?

Ryan Passmore (06:07.66)

Yeah, absolutely. So I think for ZenFund Connect, we've got three modules, as I've said, and we plan to solve the entire student ecosystem. Not just as I mentioned previously, not just the funding aspect, but it's from Matric.

So once a student passes high school and gets them a certificate and qualification, they then move into the studying environment. they would apply for ZenFund Connect. We would have bursaries on offer. We would also have a component of student loans as well. And they would enter our ecosystem where we would support them end to end.

It would be accredited student accommodation service providers that would cater for their housing components. And then moving on to once they complete their degree, moving on to career placements. So organizations and companies would advertise their bursary programs and allow for students to enroll through that.

So there's really an end-to-end solution for a student and not just catering for a bursary or a grant.

Irakli Rekhviashvili (07:48.04)

That's interesting. you have a longstanding history with Chad Le Clos, famously creating the music that propelled them to gold in London. You've also been involved in this foundation that is built on water safety and saving lives. How has that shaped your view of the student in the missing, in the missing middle?

Ryan Passmore (08:09.208)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's been a long standing friendship now that's evolved as Chad le Clos' career has evolved as well. We are now the chairmen of this foundation assisting with communities around water safety and inspiring the next generation - the next Chad Le clos, so to speak, come through the ranks within South Africa.

So really I've understood and walked that journey with him, but also understood from the community impact that the cliché is saying that it takes a village to raise a student, takes a village to raise an athlete as well.

So it's really leaning into multiple facets than one's life that you need these various facets, components to now build up an athlete, to build up a student. Parents can't necessarily do it alone and they require additional funding, whether it be to go to potential garlands, right from early development.

The doctors aren't created overnight, you know, to where they're studying and it's supporting right across through level. So it's really understanding that entire ecosystem that, you know, it isn't just that final exam. It's how hard, does one one prepare for for for that exam? And it's right across through level. And that applies to to whether you're an athlete, whether you're doctor, whichever profession you may choose.

So I think, yeah, it's really assisted me in understanding every individual, whether they're sportsmen or academic profession, that everyone requires some level of assistance.

Irakli Rekhviashvili (10:25.168)

Interesting. And we've seen the OTA reports, unpaid providers, students in unaccredited, often dangerous housing. You've integrated what you call a DHET verified property into the stack. Can you explain to our listeners what that means? And in a market where 50 % of providers weren't paid on time in this past March, how does ZenFund Connect guarantee that, you know, to your point, the bed actually exists and the landlord is held to a standard that is more than just symbolic for students.

Ryan Passmore (11:00.898)

Yeah, absolutely. Great, great question. So I think it's twofold or it certainly comes from two different perspectives. So as it's been reported that there is a shortage of beds for students requiring accredited student accommodation and understanding that from the landlord's perspective keeping paid on time and ensuring that their relevant costs are catered for so that they are able to provide a bed for a student.

So for us, it's that transparency of the platform, registering your accommodation, registering the vacancy and having complete transparency and direct payments through to the landlord right from the funder.

So from that aspect, the landlord is taken care of, but primarily the focus is around accredited service providers. So they would sign up to a platform if they were to post their vacancies, their property vacancies onto the platform, they would need to go through a stringent auditing process.

So for us, it's going through the landlords, vetting them, vetting the accommodation and the property itself and adhering to DHET's standards.

So it's going through a proper auditable process that is completely transparent end to end and has complete visibility across the board, student funder as well as the landlord.

Irakli Rekhviashvili (13:08.026)

Interesting. And if we sit down again in the next five years and we look back at this conversation, what is the one specific outcome that will tell you ZenFund Connect has changed the trajectory of the South African missing middle?

Ryan Passmore (13:25.69)

I think it's honing in on an individual, walking that journey with the student right from their first year at university and then at graduation, often the question is and the uncertainty exists around what next.

So for us, the success is measured upon job placements. for us, it's getting the corporates involved from an early stage. I spoke about grassroots and then the investment that needs to be made right from the early outset and it isn't necessarily a money capital thing.

It's focusing on the investments of the future, the graduate program. So for us, it's what a success look like in five years. It's walking the journey with the student right from first year to their job placement.

And it's measuring the success rate of that. coming through our platform and on the other side is job placements and building your career from there. yeah, funding alone doesn't solve unemployment. Funding plus housing plus credit building plus career placement does. That is the ecosystem the ZenFund Connect has built.

Irakli Rekhviashvili (14:59.588)

It sounds like you've follow them throughout the entire journey and the stacks purpose is to do exactly that end to end. Thank you for joining us. This is Irakli from BizNews. I hope this has been an enlightening session on Ryan Passmore's goal in solving the missing middle. Thank you.

Ryan Passmore (15:19.171)

Thank you.