Digital Payments Roadmap: Towards Inclusive, Accessible, Effective And Sustainable Digital Payments In South Africa

This Digital Payments Roadmap (Roadmap), known as Project Stimela, aims to accelerate the pace of adoption and use of digital payments in SA through high-level action plans (see Annexure B: Summary of the actions), and includes the following: 

• The expansion of the accessibility of the national payment system (NPS) to financial technologies (fintechs) and non-banks.
• The provision of fast, low-cost innovative payment products and services such as faster payments, e-money and mobile money, including increasing digital payments literacy and awareness in women, the youth, MSMEs, government, government social grant recipients, schools, and so forth.
• The modernization of the payment infrastructure, including the extension of the reach of safe and affordable Internet and data networks as well as access points to the underserved lower and middle LSMs market segments.

The purpose of this Roadmap is to identify obstacles, barriers and challenges to the adoption of an increased and effective usage of digital payments, and to develop a multi-disciplinary and stakeholder action plan to unlock the inclusivity, effectiveness and sustainability of digital payments in South Africa.