The South African Reserve Bank aims to publish its Authorisation Framework by end-November 2026, Governor Lesetja Kganyago said on 20 October. The plan would let appropriately regulated non-banks perform specified payment activities through an activity-based route into the system.[1]
The commercial implication is greater control over the connection. A payment provider able to seek access in its own right could make different choices about routing, counterparties and service design. Any resulting price advantage would depend on the cost of qualifying and operating the service, as well as the competition that develops.[1]
Reuters separately reported on 16 October that programme executive Pradeep Maharaj expected non-bank participants to go live around March 2027 after licensing, with testing and systems integration ahead of a mid-year launch. The report describes stages in implementation. It does not identify one opening date for every provider or service.[2]
Access and acceptance develop together
Kganyago identified governance, customer-fund safeguarding, operational resilience and reporting as continuing requirements. He also highlighted differences in PayShap functionality and pricing, low awareness and limited merchant acceptance as obstacles to wider use.[1]
For a provider evaluating the opportunity, those are two connected business problems. Permission to participate determines whether it can offer a service; acceptance determines where customers can use it. A technically efficient connection has limited commercial value if a customer still needs a second payment method for most purchases.
The governor’s delivery roadmap
| Workstream | Target | Planned step |
|---|---|---|
| Authorisation | End-November 2026 | Publish the frameworkSource 1 |
| QR+ | First quarter 2027 | Pilot interoperable QR paymentsSource 1 |
| PayShap | End-March 2027 | Begin addressing adoption constraintsSource 1 |
| Regional payments | Late April 2027 | Move qualifying payments up to R100,000 from SADC-RTGS to TCIBSource 1 |
| Regional connectivity | October 2027 | Extend the TCIB hub-and-spoke pilot across eight countriesSource 1 |
A change in the economics of access
For brokers and platforms buying payment services, wider participation could eventually create more supplier choices for account funding and withdrawals. That is a commercial implication of the planned access reform; the roadmap contains no brokerage tariff or commitment to a particular funding method.[1]
A viable service will need reliable reconciliation, a process for failed payments and enough connected customers and merchants to cover its operating costs. Publication of the framework is the next stated milestone for firms assessing participation, while the governor’s separate acceptance and interoperability projects address where the resulting services can be used.[1]
Sources & further reading
- Lesetja Kganyago: Rewiring Payments — Open. Connected. Inclusive. South African Reserve Bank · 20 Oct 2026 · Accessed 29 Oct 2026
- Big change to payments in South Africa — Reuters report of 16 October Reuters, syndicated by Newsday · 16 Oct 2026 · Accessed 29 Oct 2026