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.

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.

Lack of a formal IDs slows economic growth by limiting who can participate in the formal economy.

With support from the World Bank, the Western Balkan economies are making significant progress in aligning their national payment systems with EU standards as part of their accession goals.

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.

Mi-Bospo operates mainly in rural areas and offers access to credit and non-financial services to individuals, particularly women entrepreneurs.

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.

A senior loan of EUR 5 million will be on-lent by the bank to businesses that want to implement energy efficiency and resource efficiency measures, as well as small scale renewable energy projects. 

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.