The Reserve Bank is pushing for a series of private acquisitions in order to make it easier to track and control the population's behaviour
In a bid to accelerate the shift toward a cashless economy, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) plans to acquire a 50% stake in BankservAfrica, the country’s central clearing house. This strategic move, in partnership with commercial banks, aims to transform BankservAfrica into a national payments utility, underpinning a robust digital payment infrastructure.
The SARB acquisition, though subject to regulatory approvals and final transaction agreements, signals a decisive push to modernize South Africa’s payment systems. BankservAfrica envisions the collaboration as key to creating a more secure, inclusive, and efficient payments ecosystem, enhancing financial inclusion through wider, affordable access to digital transactions.
A cornerstone of this national utility is PayShap, BankservAfrica’s real-time, low-value payment service, launched in March 2023. With over a million transactions daily, PayShap enables instant payments through major banks, including Absa, Nedbank, Standard Bank, FNB, Capitec, and Discovery Bank. MTN has also integrated PayShap into its mobile money platform, MoMo, broadening the service’s reach to the unbanked.
Yet, cash still dominates South Africa’s informal economy, with BankservAfrica noting that nine out of ten transactions remain cash-based. A staggering 95% of informal small business transactions are settled in cash, as are 63% of payments at formal businesses.
Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago has underscored the "risks" of a cash economy, citing the difficulties in surveillance of economic activity and extraction of taxes. The SARB’s Digital Payments Roadmap aims to counter South Africans’ reliance on cash by "educating" consumers on the benefits of digital payments and reducing obstacles such as transaction fees and limited card acceptance in informal sectors.
Despite these challenges, the SARB envisions a digital payments landscape in which South Africans grow increasingly comfortable with electronic transactions. By 2025, the Reserve Bank aims to foster a digital payment system that earns greater public trust—marking a key shift towards an inclusive, cashless future.
