Empowering South Africa’s digital payment future | PayShap Request

Overview

As PayShap marks its second year, it has become a cornerstone of South Africa’s payment modernisation efforts—demonstrating the power of industry collaboration in enabling faster, safer and more accessible transactions.

In its early stages, PayShap focused on stabilising its infrastructure, expanding bank participation and ensuring interoperability across the ecosystem. Through strong partnerships between BankservAfrica and participating banks, the platform’s potential to serve financially excluded communities has grown. However, the journey is far from complete. To achieve broader adoption, sustained efforts are required to build consumer and merchant confidence, particularly in township economies and informal markets, which remain critical benchmarks for success.

The timing could not be better—PayShap needs a catalyst for growth and adoption, and at the heart of this lies the SARB’s Payment Ecosystem Modernisation (PEM) initiative. Launched in October 2023, PEM aims to transform South Africa’s National Payment System (NPS) by introducing fast, simple, affordable and secure digital payments. It further drives PayShap’s mission to create an inclusive and sustainable digital payment ecosystem that benefits all South Africans.

With this foundation in place, the focus has now shifted to delivering tangible innovations, one of which is Payshap Request. This new feature aims to redefine payment experiences, addressing real-world challenges while unlocking opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.

Our latest report explores the role of real-time payments in driving financial inclusion, modernisation and economic growth, both in South Africa and globally and further emphasises the importance of embracing digital adoption in making financial services accessible to all.

Download the report to explore our next step in reshaping South Africa’s digital payment ecosystem.