Johannesburg – BankservAfrica, the licensed Regional Clearing and Settlement Operator for SADC cross-border payments, is pleased to announce the opening of the first payment corridor between South Africa and Zambia to enable instant, low-value digital cross-border payments to communities in these economies.
This significant development comes as SendHome and SamPay have become the newest participants in the Southern African Development Community’s Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB) Payment Scheme.
“We’re extremely excited about mobilising these corridors at this time when remittance costs in the region remain concerningly high in spite of their importance to livelihoods and economies. We are hopeful that today’s development will change this, and encourage people to use this service to send home money affordably and securely. The TCIB payments platform is the digital alternative for sending money almost immediately and at a low cost,” says Ruhling Herbst, Executive Head: Africa Business Development at BankservAfrica.
With an estimated 3.7 million SADC migrants residing in South Africa, the South Africa-Zambia remittance corridor is one of the most significant in the region. However, according to a Zambia National Remittances Study, compiled by the International Organisation for Migration in 2022, out of Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe that receive remittances from South Africa, the South Africa-Zambia was the most expensive corridors to send remittances to1.
“In the longer term, the enablement of this digital payments infrastructure and the multilateral agreements will have a positive impact on the network effect of the TCIB solution, and lower the costs of remittances and cross-border payments. As a formal, regulated and inexpensive solution, the TCIB solution ensures greater convenience and accessibility, encouraging economic participation and financial inclusion,” explains Tebogo Diphoko, Africa Strategic Business Development at BankservAfrica.
“As a channel of prosperity in our region, Sendhome is thrilled to be part of these life changing payment corridors. This is an opportunity for us to bridging borders in these markets and fulfil our customers’ dreams through TCIB’s secure payment platform,” says Peterson Tengende, Sendhome CEO.
“With the increased pressure on budgets and difficulties in making cross-border payments to families and friends, SamPay has designed an essential payment solution which allows real-time payments to both South Africa and Zambia to emphasise simple, safe, cheaper payments immediately. This is the new chapter in cross-border payments,” says John Samaras, SamPay CEO.
Owned by the SADC Committee of Central Bank Governors and regulated by the SADC Payment System Oversight Committee, the TCIB Scheme is operated and managed by BankservAfrica. Live since 2021, this multi-currency enabled, ISO 20022 platform forms part of the broader SADC payments integration roadmap.
Unlike other retail payment systems operating in the region, TCIB is based on the principles of open-loop and cross-domain interoperability for processing low-value cross-border retail transactions by banks and non-banks.
“With the support from the SADC Payment System Oversight Committee, and as our engagements with key stakeholders in the SADC payments and banking ecosystem make great strides, we are looking forward to sharing more announcements for opening key remittances corridors to mobilise cross-border payments across the SADC region,” ends Herbst.
SendHome and SamPay customers may contact their respective service providers to find out more about this cross-border payment service.
For more information on TCIB, please visit https://tcib.africa/home.
Contact Wendy du Preez for more information: WendyD@bankservafrica.com or (011) 497 4119.
Resource: 1 Nyamazana, M., 2022. Zambia National Remittances Study: Report. International Organization for Migration (IOM), Lusaka.
About BankservAfrica
BankservAfrica is the trusted payments partner and Financial Markets Infrastructure (FMI) to the financial services industry. As the largest automated payments clearing house in Africa, we clear and process billions of low values card, ATM and EFT transactions annually. Our role in the South African National Payments System (NPS) is to facilitate interoperability between the banks and ensure regulatory compliance with our regulators against international banking security best practice and standards and reduces risk and complexity in the industry.
We continue to strive to be a world-class and pre-eminent payments operator, innovator and payments partner of choice in Africa, by simplifying our worlds through combining trusted transactions with sensitive information.
BankservAfrica’s national responsibility is to provide safe financial payment services for 62 million South Africans, irrespective of their location in partnership with our shareholders and partners.
With over 50 years in South Africa, BankservAfrica operates 24/7, 365 days a year and delivers on very strong SLAs.
