Rapid payments system PayShap’s transactions have surged to 30 million, valued at R19.5 billion, since its launch in March 2023, says BankservAfrica.
According to the automated clearing house, the gradual migration of transactions from legacy payments to PayShap by SA’s participating banks has contributed to the rising transaction numbers.
The surge in use of the rapid payments system indicates the need for real-time payments in SA’s digital payments ecosystem, it says.
This transition forms part of the industry’s payments modernisation strategy, leading to a lower cost system for real-time payments that will potentially bring more of SA’s unbanked and under-banked consumers into the financial system.
“We are thrilled to report on the exceptional growth for this service stemming from the industry-led rapid payments programme, which supports ongoing efforts to modernise the national payment system and deepen digital financial inclusion,” says Stephen Linnell, CEO of BankservAfrica.
Launched in March 2023, PayShap enables instant digital payments between banks via a real-time clearing system that processes transactions within 60 seconds. It also seeks to make it possible to conduct transactions without the need for bank account details.
This is done through public and private identifiers (ShapIDs), such as a registered mobile number, or an e-mail address. In addition, PayShap provides a peer-to-peer e-wallet payment service.
The payments system is led by BankservAfrica – the payments partner and financial markets infrastructure provider to the financial services industry. As the largest automated payments clearing house in Africa, the organisation processes billions of low value card, ATM and EFT transactions annually.
In May 2023, the number of PayShap transactions stood at 250 000, with four participating banks on-board. This has since grown, with six more participating banks joining the PayShap community. More banks will soon be on-boarded, notes BankservAfrica.
The consumer uptake of the PayShap service continues to strengthen, as shown by the number of registered ShapIDs increasing to over six million since launch, it says.
“As part of our market drive for PayShap, we will continue to focus our efforts on broadening adoption, especially as we prepare to introduce the request-to-pay feature later this year for small business owners and merchants,” concludes Linnell.
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