Walk into a salon in Soweto and you'll hear the same story: customers need their hair done, but they only get paid at month-end. So the owner has to choose; turn the customer away or do the service now and hope they pay later. It's the same for GPs waiting on medical aid to pay their share, crèches chasing parents for fees every single month, and school transport operators keeping track of money in notebooks and in their heads.
These aren't banking problems. They're day-to-day money problems that stop a business from growing.
South Africa's township economy is worth around R1 trillion, and almost 80% of it runs informally. That doesn't mean these are people waiting to be "banked". These are already working businesses, held back by real, everyday issues: money coming in at the wrong times, too many ways of paying and the extra costs that come with staying informal.
The real cost of using only cash
Cash isn't just risky to carry around – it also costs time. When money comes in as cash, EFT and informal transfers all at once, someone has to sit and match it all up by hand. Every hour spent on that is an hour not spent serving customers or growing the business.
And here's the bigger problem: without proper records, you can't apply for a loan. Banks won't look twice at books that are just cash totals in a notebook. On top of that, walking around with cash is dangerous. But the biggest cost of all is the one you can't see: the business simply can't grow past a certain point, because too much time goes into just managing the money.
Why digital payments actually help
Digital payments work when they solve these everyday problems – not just the problem of "how do I get paid". One system that handles debit orders, card payments, EFT and mobile transfers means everything lands in one place. No more juggling five different records.
Say a salon owner sets up debit orders. Now they can do a customer's hair mid-month, knowing the payment will go off on payday. The salon stays busy all month instead of being empty until payday. A GP can set up the medical aid co-payment automatically. A crèche stops losing days chasing fees.
But there's something deeper here too. When an owner can serve a customer mid-month and trust that payment will come on payday, that's not just convenient – it's a proper agreement between two people. The customer doesn't need to carry cash. The owner knows the money is coming. And once that trust is there, other things become possible: better stock planning, smarter hiring, loyalty deals and packages that keep customers coming back all month, not just on payday.
This is how real growth happens
A lot of township businesses have grown this far without ever registering, paying tax or opening a business bank account. Going digital creates a paper trail, proper records that show what the business actually does.
And that changes everything. Suddenly, working capital loans are possible. Suppliers are willing to give better terms. Bigger business deals open up. Owners can hire with confidence. They can even start planning who takes over the business one day.
This isn't just a "nice extra". Going digital is the first real step towards getting credit and everything that comes after that.
A salon owner making R15 000 to R20 000 a month will happily pay for something that saves them time, keeps them safer and helps them grow. They're not looking for "financial inclusion". They're looking to run their business properly.
Where the biggest opportunity is
Salons and GPs have shown the model works. But the real prize is school transport drivers and spaza shops, the businesses that keep township life moving.
Drivers are running seriously complicated operations entirely from memory and notebooks: monthly takings, fuel and maintenance. Get this digital, and you're not just helping one driver, you're solving an entire transport networks problems.
Spaza shops are the backbone of township retail – busy, tight-margin businesses that need something simple, tough and able to work even without signal. Get it right and you've upgraded the informal economy itself. And once people see their neighbours doing well with it, everyone wants in.
This isn't about dragging reluctant people into the banking system. It's about giving hardworking business owners the tools to formalise, grow and build something that lasts. That's not just a fintech feature. That's real economic mobility.
Want to see how Altron FinTech is helping Kasi businesses grow and formalise? fintech.altron.com/kasi-businesses
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