The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has unveiled an ambitious roadmap that seeks to usher in a cashless era, prioritizing financial inclusion and economic growth.

This pioneering initiative will improve access to finance over the next five years, contributing to scale up digital financial solutions and piloting insurance to 500,000 low-income farmers, including women, youth entrepreneurs.

Through the partnership, the two entities will provide small businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt with an online platform, powered by SAVA’s Payment Transaction System, that includes digital bank accounts and accounting integration tools.

By addressing the need for improved access to financial services and support for MSMEs in agriculture, the project aims to contribute to the creation of jobs and the sustainable and inclusive economic development of the sector.

The National Treasury yesterday published the Financial Inclusion Policy Framework for South Africa, titled “An Inclusive Financial Sector for All” following the endorsement and approval of the policy framework by Cabinet on 8 August 2023.

The general objective is to test a tailor-made and innovative agricultural product for smallholder farmers and expand the loan products to rural areas.

This ZAR 60 billion (≈ USD 3.3 billion) investment is expected to contribute significantly to enhancing network resilience, further accelerating Vodacom’s deep rural coverage program to help bridge the digital divide and deepening financial inclusion.

The company aims to solve the problem of informal areas not having access to payments systems in the digital age.

New offering combines electronic cross-border payments and associated documentation on same platform, cutting days off execution of cross-border payments in South Africa.

The program is designed to increase climate lending by participating banks in Egypt, Mexico, the Philippines, and South Africa to 30 percent of their portfolios by 2030.