Developing a new digital payment tool to drive financial inclusion

PayShap

Case Study
4 minute read

Client

BankservAfrica

Industry

Financial services

Our role

Financial consultation

Featuring

PwC South Africa

Background

For a significant percentage of South Africa’s population, cash is still king. Around a quarter of banked South Africans and 16% of the population who are unbanked remain financially excluded from the modern banking system by transacting solely in cash.

How we delivered

PwC South Africa was selected by BankservAfrica, Africa's premier automated clearing house, to lead the way in implementing a groundbreaking new payment rail in the country.

PayShap, co-created by the banking industry, BankservAfrica, the Payments Association of South Africa and PwC, enables instant proxy payments more affordably and effectively than any other existing payment rail. The real-time payment platform was developed by a multidisciplinary team over four years to create a superior alternative to cash and modernise the payment landscape in the country.

Sustained outcome

It was launched in March 2023 with two stand-out features: an instant clearing feature which enables consumers to instantly pay to another bank account using account details, and a proxy payment feature which enables consumers to make a payment to a proxy called a ShapID without knowing the bank account details.

These convenient features, plus PayShap’s lower cost than alternative digital payment solutions, are encouraging more people to use modern digital banking. As a result, PayShap is fuelling greater social and financial inclusion for millions of South Africans.