The payments space in South Africa is particularly dynamic at the moment. On 13 August 2025, Nedbank announced the purchase of iKhokha for R1.65-billion. And on 27 June 2025, Lesaka Technologies, which owns Kazang, announced the purchase of Bank Zero for R1.1-billion.

Most of this activity is being driven by an interest in the previously unbanked sector and particularly the small and medium-sized spaza shop networks.

A recent snap survey of spaza shop operators by Yebo Fresh found that while cash is still king, most operators are now using one or more point-of-sale devices. The research focused on 2,769 spazas and 20 midi wholesalers. The midi wholesalers mostly supply the spaza shops.

The larger businesses tended to use more devices while smaller shops used fewer. Average usage ranged between 1.4 and 2.1 devices per shop.

The most dominant systems are Flash, Kazang, and Shop2Shop. Shop2Shop was used universally in midis. Other solutions include Blue Label, Yoco, Ikokha, and A2Pay.

Regional trends show Flash dominating across provinces, with more shops surveyed in Gauteng, but the Western Cape was found to have the highest average number of devices per shop.