Grace Ashiru
PayShap, an interbank and real-time digital payments service developed in collaboration with Bankserv, a clearing house owned by South African commercial banks and the South African Reserve Bank, will launch on Monday, March 13.
PayShap says it will make it easy and safe for banked and unbanked people to send each other low-value (up to R3000) payments in real-time, no matter where they bank.
The launch of PayShap is a big step toward modernizing payments in South Africa. Mpho Sadiki, head of real-time payments at BankservAfrica, said, “Payshap wants to move people away from cash and toward digital payments.”
PayShap will be released in two steps. The first step is the launch of PayShap instant clearing, which lets you pay by account (using account information) or by proxy (using a unique identifier like a cell phone number) (ShapID).
A new function called “request-to-pay” will be added in the second step. This will allow people to ask for money and get it immediately and securely in their bank account.
Everyone will be able to use PayShap as long as both the payer’s bank and the recipient’s bank offer the service.
The launch of PayShap is a big step toward modernizing payments in South Africa. Payshap wants to get people to pay less with cash and more with digital payments,” Sadiki said.
This is a big year for payments in Mzanzi, and we think PayShap will speed up the rate at which all South Africans use digital payments.
