PayShap: South Africa’s Real-Time Payments Revolution
September 5, 2025Imagine running a small bakery, and a customer wants to pay for their morning croissant. Instead of fumbling with cash or cards, they simply send payment to your cellphone number. That’s the power of instant payments, and PayShap is leading the way in South Africa.
PayShap is the country’s first real-time online payments service, designed to make everyday financial transactions faster, easier, and more accessible. With just a cellphone number or a ShapID, you can send or receive money within seconds with no banking details required.
It’s a major step toward financial inclusion and digital innovation in a country where cash and traditional EFTs still dominate. But instant payments don’t just catch on overnight.
Want to know how PayShap works, what’s driving its uptake, what barriers remain, and what lessons South Africa can learn from global success stories? Let’s get into it.
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What is an instant payment?
An instant payment is a type of financial transaction where money is transferred and received in real time, regardless of the day or time. Unlike traditional methods like EFTs or card settlements, these are processed 24/7, offering faster payments, convenience, and certainty. They're ideal for everyday use, from getting money in the bank to paying your suppliers.
What is PayShap?
PayShap is a South African real-time payments platform designed to make sending and receiving money as quick and effortless as sending a text. Launched in March 2023, it was developed by BankservAfrica in partnership with the Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) and the country’s major financial institutions.
At its core, PayShap allows users to transfer money instantly using just a mobile number or a unique identifier called a ShapID.
It’s a leap forward in making digital payments simpler, faster, and more inclusive. Whether you're using the platform to receive payments instantly, request payments, or even pay for goods and services for your business, the money reflects in seconds, regardless of bank or time of day.
PayShap is available through the digital channels of major banks like Absa, FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank, and Capitec. With real-time clearing, built-in security, and a growing set of features, it’s reshaping the way South Africans think about money movement.
How widespread is PayShap adoption?
Since its launch, PayShap has experienced remarkable growth, signaling a strong appetite for instant payments in South Africa. By May 2024, the platform had processed over 30 million transactions, totaling R19.5 billion in value. This surge from just 250,000 transactions in May 2023 reflects a significant shift towards real-time digital payments.
As a local business owner, you’re starting to see the shift firsthand. More and more customers, especially younger ones, are asking to use PayShap. By mid-2024, over 6 million South Africans had signed up, with 4.5 million registering ShapIDs. Millennials and Gen Z, who are already comfortable with mobile tech, have been driving this change, and local businesses are following suit to keep up with demand.
However, despite this growth, traditional payment methods like cash and bank cards remain prevalent. Many South Africans continue to rely on these methods due to habit, accessibility, or lack of awareness about PayShap. To bridge this gap, ongoing education and outreach are essential to demonstrate the benefits and ease of using PayShap for everyday transactions.
What’s helping (and hindering) adoption of real-time payments?
The growth of PayShap is built on the foundation of strong infrastructure, innovation, and collaboration, but several hurdles must still be cleared for the system to become universal. Thanks to the Rapid Payments Programme (RPP) infrastructure that powers Payshap, users can be assured of ongoing efforts to make life easier.
In short, while PayShap has laid a solid foundation, boosting adoption will require a multi-pronged approach. Think factors like sustained public education, strong incentives for merchants, and continued investment in features like Request to Pay that solve real-world pain points.
Infrastructure and interoperability
Robust infrastructure is essential for any real-time payment system. PayShap’s launch was supported by extensive backend development, ensuring that transactions could be processed securely and instantly across different banks.
Today, all major banks, including Absa, FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank, and Capitec, support PayShap, with more banks expected to come online soon. This interoperability means users can send money from one bank to another seamlessly, making it easier for the system to scale.
Broad participation by financial institutions is crucial to achieving scale across the board. If users encounter friction or are unable to send money to certain banks, it cuts down confidence and deters people from using it. Fortunately, PayShap has made impressive progress in aligning South Africa’s banking sector around a unified payments rail.
Request to Pay (RTP) feature
One of the most promising tools for accelerating adoption is the introduction of Request to Pay (RTP). This feature allows users, both individuals and businesses, to send a payment request rather than transferring money directly. It offers a practical way to manage invoicing and casual transactions alike.
Leading the pack, Standard Bank is pioneering the rollout of RTP to businesses. This capability is particularly attractive to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are more prone to struggling with slow or unreliable payments. Request to Pay provides a fast, secure, and structured method for these businesses to collect money, improving their cash flow and reducing administrative overhead.
Marketing and consumer education
Despite PayShap’s technical readiness and availability, many South Africans remain unaware of the platform or don’t understand its benefits. Unfortunately, limited awareness is creating a major bottleneck, particularly among the older generations and users outside urban centers.
The powers behind PayShap have responded with multi-channel marketing campaigns, including tutorials, social media outreach, and in-app guides to demystify the process. However, education must go beyond just information; it also needs to build trust. Many people are still hesitant to shift from physical cash to digital alternatives unless they feel confident in the system’s reliability and security.
Factoring in demographics and habits of consumers
The adoption of instant payments as a go-to payment method is also influenced by demographic and behavioral factors. Usage patterns suggest that younger users have shown enthusiasm for PayShap, likely thanks to their comfort with digital apps and mobile-first services.
On the other hand, mature users and those with less exposure to fintech remain cautious. These users still favor bank cards or cash. Behavioral inertia is a powerful force, and overcoming it requires both tempting incentives and emotional reassurance.
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Banks play a critical role in accelerating PayShap’s reach
Much of PayShap’s current and future success hinges on how banks choose to position the service. Early adoption by South Africa’s top banks has made real-time payments technically feasible, but strategic promotion isn’t quite there yet.
Yet, even among these large banks, not all have made PayShap the default option in their payment flows. This subtle UX (user experience) decision significantly impacts visibility and usage. When PayShap is buried beneath traditional EFT or card payment options, users may not even realise it exists, let alone understand why they should use it.
South African banks also determine how affordable PayShap feels to users. Pricing models differ, with some banks offering free transactions and others applying small fees. In the current economic climate, cost sensitivity is particularly high among South African consumers.
Without fee standardisation or clear value communication, some users may stick with what they know, meaning cash or free banking transfers, even if they’re slower. Moreover, user experience matters. An intuitive, well-designed payment interface is key to driving sustained use.
Research emphasises that seamless digital onboarding and minimal user friction are essential ingredients in building long-term trust and habit formation, especially among those less familiar with digital banking.
Ultimately, financial institutions aren’t just the gatekeepers. Their decisions about integration, design, cost, and education will determine how deeply PayShap influences the daily lives of South Africans.
The more actively banks champion the system, the faster the adoption rate will grow. And if banks fully align with the strategic rollout of features like Request to Pay and merchant integrations, PayShap has the potential to follow in the footsteps of Pix and UPI as a South African game-changer.
Key challenges for increasing PayShap adoption
Despite its early success, PayShap still faces several roadblocks that need to be addressed before the system can reach mass adoption. One major challenge is the unbanked population. A significant number of South Africans, particularly those in rural or underserved areas, still operate largely in cash.
These individuals are unlikely to use digital payment services like PayShap until they have access to the formal banking sector or viable mobile alternatives. To overcome this, PayShap needs to integrate more non-bank-related participants, such as fintech companies and mobile wallets, which can provide access without requiring a traditional bank account.
Another hurdle is merchant acceptance. While PayShap works well for peer-to-peer transactions, it’s not yet widely accepted by some brick-and-mortar retailers or online merchants. Many businesses still prioritise traditional payment options like cards and EFTs. This limits the use cases for PayShap and reduces its visibility in everyday transactions.
The developers are working to address this by exploring features like QR code payments, which would make it easier for merchants to integrate PayShap into their point-of-sale systems.
Lastly, there’s the issue of user trust and usability. For some consumers, new technology can seem intimidating or unreliable. Without robust user support, clear, easy-to-follow instructions, and secure processes, these users may hesitate to try PayShap. Ensuring a no-nonsense user experience will be critical for clearing the adoption hurdle.
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Lessons from around the world: learning about immediate payments
PayShap isn’t the first real-time payment system to hit the international scene. Platforms in countries like Brazil and India have been there, done that, and they have valuable lessons to offer. These systems show that strategic rollout, ease of use, and broad accessibility are the holy trinity of instant payment adoption.
Brazil’s Pix
Launched in 2020, Pix has become a runaway success in Brazil. In less than a year, it had over 100 million users. The result means that as of 2023, Pix processes over 3 billion transactions per month. How? A few smart moves:
- Mandatory participation by all banks.
- Easy user experience: phone numbers as identifiers.
- Integration into eCommerce and physical retail environments.
India’s UPI
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is another rockstar. It’s clocking over 10 billion transactions monthly. That’s not a typo. India made UPI appealing through:
- Zero-cost transactions.
- Heavy government backing.
- Seamless integration into apps like WhatsApp and Google Pay.
Here's the source link: https://ozow.com/blog/the-rise-of-instant-payments-comparing-brazils-pix-and-south-africas-payshap. I can't link to it directly, since it's a competitor
What can PayShap do next?
So Payshap is on the up and up. How can the platform level up? Let's find out:
1. Focus on everyday use cases
People adopt tech when it solves their day-to-day problems. Whether you’re running a small shop or a medium-sized company, PayShap should aim to become the go-to method for quick transactions.
2. Draw in the unbanked
By partnering with fintechs and enabling alternative options like the ShapID, PayShap can reach users who don’t have traditional bank accounts. This is essential to bridging South Africa’s financial inclusion gap.
3. Merchant engagement
Getting more stores, markets, and online platforms to accept PayShap is a must. If users know they can PayShap anywhere, they’ll be more likely to use it.
4. Better user experience and lower costs
Nobody likes clunky apps or surprise fees. PayShap needs to be as seamless and free (or cheap) as possible. The smoother and more affordable the experience, the faster the adoption.
5. Build trust
For older generations or skeptical users, trust is everything. Emphasising security features, providing guarantees, and showcasing success stories can help build confidence in instant payment systems.
The future is (almost) here
The good news? The foundation has been laid, and the infrastructure is in place. The banking sector is on board. Features like Request to Pay are rolling out. And the numbers are trending upward.
But we’re still in the early days.
The real tipping point will come when PayShap becomes second nature, like swiping a card or handing over a ten-rand note. This being the future of payments isn’t just possible, it’s probable.
Wrapping up a new era of payments: PayShap
PayShap is more than just a payment system. It’s a bridge to a faster, more inclusive financial future. While there are hurdles to overcome, like limited merchant use and the unbanked population, the system’s growth is undeniable.
With a few good strategies, consumer education, and a little inspiration, South Africa has a real shot at creating one of the best real-time payment ecosystems in the world. And who wouldn’t want to send money as easily as sending a text?
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Author:
Candice Sergeant
Product Manager
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Candice Sergeant is a digital dynamo at Netcash, where she’s on a mission to help South African businesses level up their online game. As an eCommerce Product Owner, she’s got her finger on the pulse of the latest trends and technologies, constantly seeking out ways to boost sales and streamline operations. With a knack for spotting opportunities and a passion for innovation, Candice is your go-to guide for taking your e-commerce business to the next level.
