WATCH THE VIDEO HERE Per Bradwin Roper, MTN South Africa’s Fintech CEO, “This strategic collaboration will empower our users, particularly the unbanked community, with accessibility and convenience.” He also stated that the move will promote financial inclusion by connecting more people to the secure and efficient world of mobile payments. PayShap, a real-time interbank payment service, was launched in March 2023 as part of the Rapid Payments Programme, an industry-led initiative to develop a cashless payment option. It has the support of four banks: Nedbank, Absa, Standard Bank, FNB, and Discovery Bank, and approval from the South African Reserve Bank. South Africans can use the platform to send and receive money instantly by providing only their cell phone numbers. According to MTN, integrating the PayShap solution on the MoMo platform is still pending approval. Meanwhile, it has not revealed what fees will apply to PayShap payments made through MoMo, as many South African banks charge transaction fees on PayShap transactions. Cumesh Moodliar, CEO of Investec Bank, stated, “by bridging the gap between traditional banking and mobile solutions, we aim to foster a financial ecosystem that serves all segments of society.” In February 2024, MTN partnered with MasterCard to launch the MoMo virtual card for Africa. The virtual cards will equip merchants using the MoMo platform to accept card payments seamlessly.