SlipMate Offers First Mastercard Corporate Prepaid Cards for E-Commerce

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 18835 Views | 8 min read

South African expense management solution SlipMate has announced that it has enabled e-commerce functionality for its Mastercard corporate prepaid cards, a first-of-its-kind integration for the South African market. SlipMate is an intelligent expense management solution designed by Innervation Rewards that enables South African companies to reconcile employees’ corporate expenses from their Mastercard prepaid corporate card,

Black Friday: More South Africans Shop with Less Money

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 18828 Views | 17 min read

New patterns emerge as online shopping evolves PayU, the emerging market payments leader, reveals that everything from the late-night shopping frenzy, to payment methods, to basket size has changed when it comes to Black Friday. Despite a significant increase of 30 percent in transaction volumes compared to last year, the total spend for the day

The Effect of AI on Innovation in Payroll

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 9611 Views | 27 min read

Innovation cycles are a key catalyst for growth and play a critical role in both entrepreneurship and economic development. The term ‘creative destruction’ was first coined in 1942 by economist Joseph Schumpeter. It refers to the dismantling of traditional business and economic models to pave the way for revolutionary technologies and innovative processes to improve

Grindstone Ventures Launches $6.5m Venture Capital Fund for SA Tech SME Development

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 7534 Views | 18 min read

Female-led African venture capital fund  Fills need for post-seed, pre-Series A funding for the African continent  Aligned to President’s vision of a startup nation in South Africa Grindstone Ventures has launched a US $6.5m (R100 million) fund dedicated to seed funding predominantly South African innovative technology startups who have completed, or are part, of its

Proparco and Standard Bank South Africa Strengthen their Partnership to Increase Access to Finance for Small Businesses

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 16964 Views | 18 min read

Proparco and Standard Bank signed two guarantee agreements for €28.5 million in Johannesburg during Proparco’s Deputy CEO, Djalal Khimdjee’s visit to South Africa. The guarantees are in line with the Choose Africa initiative to accelerate the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and entrepreneurship in Africa. Standard Bank will further support job creation

Standard Bank Enabled UnionPay Contactless Payments Across South Africa

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 12612 Views | 9 min read

Standard Bank South Africa (SBSA) and UnionPay International (UPI) jointly announced that Standard Bank point-of-sale devices have been enabled for UnionPay contactless payment. The cooperation is a strategic move from UPI that follows the surging trend of the global contactless payment industry and accelerates the development of international mobile payment services. According to a survey

Rate Hike by SARB is a Sign that Economic Recovery is Underway, says FNB CEO

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 8978 Views | 9 min read

Following the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) decision to increase its repo rate by 0.25%, FNB will also lift its prime lending rate by 0.25%. The new rate will take effect on all prime-linked accounts from Friday 19 November 2021. FNB CEO Jacques Celliers says that “Today’s rate hike by the SARB is a sign

BankservAfrica | The Current State of SA’s Cash Economy

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 7082 Views | 14 min read

Andre Harmse, Product Manager of BankservAfrica’s Integrated Cash Management System (ICMS), shares some insights on the cash economy. As of September 2021, the number of bank notes and coins in circulation in South Africa amounted to R166 billion. Cash represents 2.7% of the country’s R6.1 trillion GDP, according to the South African Reserve Bank’s Quarterly

Synthesis | Blockchain and The Future of Remittances

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 18775 Views | 32 min read

By Ramtin Mesgari, Synthesis Software Engineer Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars are sent across borders by emigrant workers who have moved away from their home countries. Global remittances in 2018 alone totalled over $600 billion and the number of migrant workers continues to increase every year. And yet, migrant workers who leave their

PayFast Launches Second Ecommerce Performance Index

Posted on by Staff Reporter | 31058 Views | 11 min read

South Africa’s retail sector has entered the age of ecommerce, with total online retail sales expected to reach R42-billion by the end of 2021. From the rise of contactless payments to the boom in social commerce, the pandemic has significantly altered consumer expectations when it comes to making purchases online. To unpack the major trends