The Shift Towards Faster, Inclusive Payments in South Africa

Affluent and alive with commercial and residential activities, South Africa’s main city centres, such as Sandton, offer a striking view of the country’s dual economy. It features high-rise buildings housing leading banks and multinational companies and boasts upscale malls that draw shoppers from all over the continent and beyond. In Africa’s richest square mile, speed is currency, and convenience defines the pace of business. Keeping this fast-moving economy running are payments, moving transactions rapidly and effortlessly, with newer innovations expanding choice for both corporates and consumers more than ever before.

A few metres away, a different world emerges. Bustling sidewalks are lined with informal traders selling meals and goods to passing workers. For these entrepreneurs, cash, exchanged in frequent, low-value transactions throughout the day, remains the preferred way to do business. With no delays or processing times, cash is instant, reliable, and universally accepted. For traders, it gives them the immediacy of visibility over their earnings, helping many to manage their cash flows and prepare for the next day’s demand.

South Africa’s economy is the story of two worlds – one increasingly digital and connected, the other still heavily cash-dependent, most notably in the thriving informal economy. The result is a widening gap driven by exclusion and unequal access.

Over the past decade, GDP grew at only 0.7% per year and unemployment reached 33.2% in Q2 2025, with youth and women most affected. Lack of governance, poor infrastructure, and limited innovation continue to hold the economy back. However, national efforts to advance structural reforms and modernise key sectors could raise growth to 3.5% by 2029 and promote inclusive, sustainable development. A core focus of this is digital public infrastructure, enabling growth and financial inclusion through digital payments.

The Digital Payments (R)evolution

Despite South Africa’s advanced payment systems and growing digital momentum, innovation has mainly helped the banked population, with rising smartphone use and new payment technologies reshaping behaviour. A significant proportion of the population, particularly in the informal economy, continues to rely on cash. Over the years, substantial progress has been made towards improving financial inclusion. In 2003, only 55% of South African adults had a bank account, and by 2023, this had increased to ... Subscribe to read more or download your sample issue here!

About PayInc

Processing billions of transactions worth trillions of Rands each year, PayInc is Africa’s leading provider of payment services and infrastructure, with a reach extending across the continent, particularly in the Southern African Development Community. Appointed by the SARB as a systematically important financial market infrastructure, and long trusted as the banking sector’s clearing partner, PayInc operates as a licensed Payment Clearing House System Operator under the Payments Association of South Africa (PASA). Amid rapid developments in South Africa’s payments landscape, the organisation has taken decisive steps to reposition itself for the future.

In August 2025, BankservAfrica rebranded as PayInc, signalling a decisive shift and commitment to the future of faster, digital payments. Building on more than 50 years of facilitating payments, the organisation, in its role as a national payments utility, has developed a sharp focus on purposeful payments innovation. Foundational to this purpose is PayInc’s position as a trusted enabler at the centre of South Africa’s digital payments ecosystem. Recognising that meaningful inclusion thrives on broader ecosystem participation – a focus of the SARB’s amendments to the National Payments Act – PayInc’s brand promise, ‘Making Great Connections,’ captures the essence: sustainable economic growth depends on the collaboration of participants in South Africa’s growing ecosystem.

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