South Africa Is Getting Ready For Instant Low Value Payments

Payshap, a low value, interbank, real-time digital payments service intended to increase financial inclusion to the underbanked segment, will start to be rolled out by South Africa’s top four banks.

PayShap, created by BankServAfrica, will be made available by Absa, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank in early 2023 before being made available across the sector in the months that follow.

According to Mpho Sadiki, head of real-time payments at BankservAfrica, “making a modest value (under R3000) transfer to an account at any other bank should be rapid, straightforward, and economical.” While the majority of banked South Africans will appreciate the ease of this service, we think the underbanked, cash-dominated sector will reap the greatest benefits.

According to him, the PayShap service would be made available to customers in two phases. The quick clearing option, which offers the choice of paying by account (using account information) or by proxy, will debut in the first (using a unique identifier such as a cellphone number). In the second step, a new request-to-pay feature will be added, enabling people to make payments and receive funds safely and right away in their bank accounts.

Customers will be able to use PayShap using the preferred financial channels offered by their banks, including online banking, banking applications, and USSD.