Unemployment is down, business confidence is robust, and millions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are powering sustainable growth.
South Africa finally looks like a country realising its true potential, writes Cheslyn Jacobs, CEO of GoTyme Bank.
At the heart of this shift is a simple but transformative change: the widespread adoption of PayShap, a low-cost instant payment system that replaced cash and unlocked access to finance.
However, this future is not guaranteed. Without decisive action to modernise payments, another future awaits, one where SMEs still struggle to achieve even incremental growth, constrained by a lack of collateral to secure funding. Unemployment remains high, and GDP is lacklustre.
In 2026, we stand at the crossroads between either future. For now, we are set to choose the first path, helped by Government’s reform of the payments system. If successfully rolled out, it could unleash our economy’s entrepreneurial potential.
PayShap, which celebrates its third anniversary this month, is one of Government’s key catalysts of payments reform, with objectives including expediting fund flows across the value chain at vastly reduced cost.
It is designed to become the nation’s default payment rail, characterised by instant settlement and low fees. It also offers the potential to radically transform our economy, faster and more easily than other, more cumbersome structural interventions.
But, like all catalysts, it only starts working when it reaches critical mass. Scale is essential to unlock the potential PayShap offers.
At full adoption, PayShap would be used by South Africans to settle all their buying and selling. This shift would unlock substantial capital for entrepreneurs to invest more money, more quickly.
The ripple effect is profound. As SMEs grow in size and number, they hire more staff, helping to address our unemployment crisis. A rising population of economically active people broadens financial inclusion and further stimulates growth.
As we celebrate PayShap’s progress over the past three years, we must also acknowledge that more is needed to trigger the economic renewal our country requires.
It is fair to say that PayShap adoption has so far been slow. Transaction volumes, although growing, remain relatively small compared to legacy rails such as card, electronic funds transfer, and real-time clearing.
Awareness among consumers is building, but PayShap has yet to become embedded in the South African zeitgeist. To build the momentum needed, the structural blockages limiting PayShap’s potential must be removed.
Designated by government as a key enabler in the modernisation of our payments ecosystem, PayShap was initially driven by the country’s big retail banks under Bankserv. Only a small number of banks hosted PayShap on their apps and platforms, making it difficult to find and use.
Given that listed financial institutions are primarily accountable to their shareholders, promoting a new low-cost payment rail that cannibalises their own non-interest income creates a direct conflict of interest.
It has also become clear, from successful schemes in places like Brazil and India, that central banks, rather than the private sector, need to drive instant payments adoption by establishing purpose-driven entities supported by active oversight, clear rules, and enforcement.
Last year’s SARB investment in PayShap through Bankserv, since rebranded PayInc., triggered this necessary course correction.
More recently, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana confirmed in his 2026 Budget Speech that PayInc. would provide “open, shared digital payments infrastructure” to support operability across various payment providers, serving as the main platform for both high-value and retail transactions.
GoTyme Bank welcomes this repositioning of PayShap as a utility, and the shift away from a product with variable pricing and limits across different banks. This fundamental change will embed PayShap in the national consciousness as a public asset, rather than a grudge purchase like so many other banking products.
Under the SARB’s active leadership, PayShap is evolving into a cohesive, unifying rail intended to become the nation’s default payment channel. At GoTyme Bank, we have already embedded a unified payment channel in our new banking app, one that automatically routes customers through the lowest-cost option, which is PayShap, every time they transact.
Looking ahead, the government’s roadmap for payments modernisation must pass several important milestones to reach the future I have described. In a highly regulated sector, clarity on risk and compliance is vital, and fraud mitigation must advance faster than criminal networks can devise new methods to steal customers’ money.
The SARB must lead decisively on these issues. Without robust and proactive governance, PayShap will not earn the trust or buy-in of users at scale.
PayShap is the beachhead for South Africa’s payments reform. It blends global best practice with the ingenuity of our financial sector and the power of multi-sectoral collaboration under the SARB’s guidance.
We have all the ingredients to make PayShap the most successful low-cost payments rail in the world. We also have a responsibility, to our country and to our people, to choose that future.
