Author: Hennie Dreyer

South Africa is in the middle of a digital wallet boom. In fact, SA now has an estimated 70% digital wallet adoption rate for daily payments.   Banks, retailers, telecoms providers and fintech companies are all racing to build the app that will become the centre of consumers’ financial lives. From instant payments and loyalty programmes to QR transactions and digital savings products, the competition to own the customer relationship has intensified dramatically.   At first glance, this looks like progress. And in many ways, it is.  Digital wallets have the potential to reduce cash dependency, improve financial inclusion and lower the…

South Africa’s financial landscape stands at the edge of a big transformation. By opening up the payments space to non-licensed players, the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Vision 2025 promises to redefine access to the country’s payment systems. This means much greater democratisation of the payments landscape in the next few years. Essentially, the SARB is ushering in an era of open payments with tremendous potential for innovation, competition and financial inclusion in the formal and informal economies – changes that will ultimately benefit South African consumers the most. SARB’s Vision 2025 and potential impact on payments in South Africa…