South Africa takes on the presidency of the G20 in 2025 with six headline priorities.
Alongside debt sustainability for low-income countries, mobilising finance for a just energy transition, food security, disaster resilience, and digital infrastructure, payment reform is the one that businesses in this country will feel most directly.
The G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments, adopted in 2020, is intended to make money transfers faster, cheaper and more transparent within seven years.
We may be just two years away from the G20’s 2027 deadline, but anyone living, working and doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa knows the reality: rules are inconsistent, costs are still too high and payment systems are not aligned. The real task now is to bridge those gaps, drawing on lessons from regions that are already further down the road.
An ambitious global agenda meets local barriers
The Roadmap set ambitious, quantitative targets, in which three quarters of cross-border retail payments should be settled in under an hour, and remittance costs should fall below 3%.
The job of tracking whether the world is on course falls to the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the G20’s watchdog for the global financial system.
Its 2024 progress report showed little movement, however: retail transfer costs actually rose year-on-year, and fewer payments were delivered within a day. In other words, we’re going backwards.
At a February 2025 side-event at Zimbali, KwaZulu-Natal, co-hosted by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, these barriers were put under the spotlight.
SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago stressed that while domestic systems can process instant payments, cross-border flows were still expensive and disjointed. In some corridors, remittance costs exceed 10%.
The obstacles, he argued, are not technical but structural due to regulatory misalignment, poor data exchange and a lack of trust.
Standards may be moving ahead at a global level, but in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, the basics simply aren’t in place. Without better coordination, the promised benefits will never reach the businesses and households that rely on them most.
Lessons and opportunities
Other countries – especially in the Global South – are already showing what’s possible.
In India, the Unified Payments Interface has made it easy and cheap for people to move money instantly, and it’s now being linked with systems in Singapore and the UAE.
Singapore’s PayNow shows how banks and non-banks can work together seamlessly, while Europe’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement proves that transfers across borders can clear in seconds.
It shows that when systems are aligned, use common standards like ISO 20022, and open the door to non-bank players, payments become faster, cheaper and more reliable.
South Africa is starting from a stronger position than many of its neighbours. PayShap, our domestic Rapid Payments Programme, is ISO 20022-based and provides the foundation for future cross-border links.
Regionally, the SADC Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB) scheme is live, with a South Africa-Zambia corridor launched last year.
If these initiatives reach their full potential, they could bring settlement times down from days to just hours, reduce reliance on cash, and pull more transfers out of costly informal channels.
Fintech firms are also helping to accelerate progress by offering quicker, more transparent alternatives to traditional banking channels and encouraging wider adoption of modern payment standards.
Their involvement adds competition, innovation and reach, helping formal systems become more accessible to more users.
For businesses, the reforms promise clearer quotes, quicker settlement and an end to hidden costs buried in exchange rates and bank fees.
Investors will benefit from faster, more reliable transfers that build confidence and improve liquidity. And for small and medium-sized firms, access to affordable, transparent payment systems could be the difference between expanding across the region or being locked out by costs.
Preparing for change
But South Africa has its own stumbling blocks. Exchange controls remain tight, with penalties of up to 40% of a transaction for non-compliance.
The rules are meant to protect the economy, but in practice, they add red tape and make it harder for non-bank providers to compete with traditional institutions.
Transparency is another weak spot: Banks build extra fees into their foreign exchange rates rather than showing them separately, which means clients never really know how much they are paying for a transfer.
The new Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill, expected to be signed into law by the end of the year, is meant to change that by requiring providers to spell out all costs, but it will only make a difference if it’s enforced properly.
Later this month, the FSB will publish its 2025 progress report, showing how close – or far – the world is from hitting its targets.
There will still be gaps, but businesses can expect tougher data requirements and higher standards.
Cleaner, more accurate information will be essential to avoid compliance delays, and the providers who can process it quickly and transparently will stand out.
Providers that already prioritise efficiency, transparent pricing and strong compliance are aligned with the standards set out in the G20 Roadmap.
This approach helps businesses avoid hidden costs and unnecessary delays, leaving them better positioned as the reforms begin to take effect.
The G20 wants to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more transparent.
We know Sub-Saharan Africa’s hurdles won’t be smoothed over in a hurry, but South Africa has a real opportunity to learn from global examples and turn that knowledge into an advantage – lowering costs, speeding up payments and strengthening investor confidence.
Harry Scherzer, CEO of Future Forex.
BUSINESS REPORT
