Key players in South Africa’s payments landscape have joined forces to form a new industry association.
The Association of South African Payment Providers (Asapp) is an industry body that aims to promote fair access to payment infrastructure, reduce the wholesale cost of digital payments and enhance customer mobility within the payments ecosystem, its founding members said on Wednesday.
“We see cash as being the most dominant form of payment for many consumers, micro merchants and small businesses in townships, villages and city centres across the country,” said Lesaka Technologies CEO and president of Asapp Lincoln Mali at a launch event in Johannesburg.
“This is not sustainable. We need to digitise our economy. We need to open up our payments system, to make it more modern and inclusive, so that more merchants, small businesses and consumers can participate in a modern payment environment,” said Mali.
Asapp’s founding members are:
- Altron
- Hello Group
- iKhokha
- Lesaka Technologies
- Network International (formerly known as Payfast)
- Peach Payments
- Shop2Shop
- Yoco
The launch of Asapp comes as the Reserve Bank prepares to open up the National Payments System to non-bank fintechs in an effort drive the digitisation of money and improve financial inclusion.
The idea behind the initiative is to give non-bank players – which tend to have a wider geographical footprint and extended operational hours compared to traditional banks – the ability to clear and settle payments between banks and each other.
Read: Reserve Bank to open national payments system to fintechs
“We recognise that today people don’t necessarily need to bank, but they do need to transact. And thus I could have my money in a bank account, but for ease of transacting I could take some of that money and put it into a digital wallet to be able to transact,” said Tim Masela, head of the National Payments System at the Reserve Bank, in an interview with TechCentral in December. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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