By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and clearing house BankservAfrica launched a new rapid payment programme, Payshap.
Payshap – which is backed by the SA Reserve Bank and local banks – will allow South Africans to transfer money instantly between their phones, without a bank account.
You will be able to send money using vouchers and PIN codes, and recipients won’t have to cash out that money first to perform another transaction.Payshap will allow them to make payments from their new balance to other people, and soon also via apps like WhatsApp.
The SARB further expects the offering to be extended for service provision by non-banks as soon as it is practically possible,” the central bank said.
Banks such as Capitec, Investec, Discovery, TymeBank and Standard Chartered are also expected to also integrate with the new system in the future.
According to SARB, PayShap is a low-value, real-time rapid payment platform aimed at deepening the digital financial inclusion of both consumers and small businesses.
Fundi Tshazibana, the deputy governor of the SARB, said that consumers would no longer have to wait days until money from a transaction is reflected in their account.
PayShap will allow real-time low-value transactions of up to a maximum of R3,000 for both consumers and small businesses in South Africa.
The platform is a commercially-available system stemming from the Reserve Bank’s Rapid Payments Programme (RPP).
It allows users to send money using a cellphone number (ShapID) which recipients can use directly to make payments to others without having to cash out first.
The new system also removes the need for remembering bank account numbers.
PayShap is designed for smaller transactions and is cheaper than current instant money transfer methods between banks, the SARB said.
The initial rollout of PayShap will begin on 13 March 2023.
SARB said that PayShap marks a milestone in the bank’s ongoing efforts to modernise and advance South Africa’s payment ecosystem in line with international standards.